White House, Trump Pledge Week of ‘Action’ After Health Care Blow
After Democrats and a split GOP pressed pause last week on President Donald Trump’s effort to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, the administration on Monday was already working to spin the narrative forward, promising a week of “action.”
The president is expected to sign executive orders focused on trade, energy and deregulation over the next few days, allowing him to bypass the Congressional gridlock that stalled his first major legislative initiative as Commander-in-Chief. Between Monday and Tuesday alone he will sign at least two directives into law, according to the White House, including one that will undo Obama-era environmental regulations which the administration has blamed for stifling the energy industry and killing jobs within the sector.
Trump has also enlisted the help of his son-in-law Jared Kushner, to join his crusade against what he decries as politics as usual in Washington, charging him with heading a brand new office called the White House office of American Innovation.
“Basically the president is creating a new version of a ‘privatization’ office,” Al Angrisani, author and former Assistant U.S. Secretary of Labor under President Ronald Reagan, told FOX Business. “The main objective is to move expense off the government budget and cut the deficit. The second objective is to try to improve the efficiency of the service behind the expense.”
Angrisani pointed to the U.S. Post Office as one example of an agency that might work more efficiently, and save taxpayers billions each year, as a completely private enterprise.
The office will be filled with business executives of all ideological backgrounds, who will not only be tasked with revamping the federal bureaucracy and cutting through stagnation, but also with helping push through some of Trump’s campaign promises, according to The Washington Post. Those promises reportedly include working to combat opioid addiction and improving health care for veterans.
“I definitely believe the president would like to legally bypass Congress if possible,” Angrisani added. “The health care debacle reminded us how incompetent Congress is regardless of which political party is running [it].”
FOX Business has learned that JPMorgan (NYSE:JPM) CEO Jamie Dimon, Blackstone Group (NYSE:BX) CEO Stephen Schwarzman and Apple (NYSE:AAPL) CEO Tim Cook will be advising the administration as part of the initiative.
The president did hit the ground running Monday, meeting with a roundtable of female small business owners to promote women empowerment in the workforce. He was expected to announce the first of his executive orders for the week by Monday afternoon.