Trump Cabinet members actions and issues


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OnTheIssues.org excerpts:  (click on issues for details)

Abortion     Scott Pruitt: Double headline - Already Done.     Andrew Puzder: Author of controversy: life begins at conception.     Sonny Perdue: Parental notification for minors.     Larry Kudlow: Trump's support of late-term abortion ban is "gift from god".

Budget & Economy     Larry Kudlow: $6.2 trillion in aid; we think we can get through this.     Larry Kudlow: We're going to stay with Trump pro-growth program.     Larry Kudlow: FactCheck: No, deficit is increasing with Trump tax cuts.     Linda McMahon: Reduce financial regulations so small businesses get capital.     Wilbur Ross: SEC investigating insider trading "short sale" of oil stock.     Elaine Chao: Reckless tax and spend strategy is hazardous for economy.

Civil Rights     Ben Carson: People can only afford to live in certain places.     Jeff Sessions: 1986: Lost appointment for racially insensitive comments.     Linda McMahon: Longtime advocate for women in leadership and business.     Nikki Haley: Women don't have more challenges, just different ones.     Betsy DeVos: Rescind "weaponized" use of sexual misconduct accusations.     Ben Carson: Scrap HUD tool for racial discrimination in public housing.     Wilbur Ross: LGBT protections omitted, then reinstated following scrutiny.     Nikki Haley: Our goal should always be to empower women.     Sonny Perdue: Call on legislature for Constitutional ban on gay marriage.

Corporations     Larry Kudlow: In return for cash grants, US should have stake in airlines.     Larry Kudlow: We believe in supply side Laffer Curve.     Betsy DeVos: Served as chairman of investment firm The Windquest Group.     Daniel Coats: Pro-growth economic policies to put Americans back to work.     Jeff Sessions: Establishment conservative: opposed 2008 bank bailouts.     Linda McMahon: Give entrepreneurs the tools they need to start & succeed.     Linda McMahon: Grew WWE from 13-person company to 800 employees worldwide.     Mick Mulvaney: Ran family real estate business & family restaurant.     Steve Mnuchin: Partner at Goldman-Sachs; board member at three art museums.     Wilbur Ross: 55 years of investment banking and private equity experience.     Wilbur Ross: Privatization adviser to New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani.     Elaine Chao: Public-private partnerships for innovating on infrastructure.     Elaine Chao: Reform corporate tax code to reward offshore tax havens.     Wilbur Ross: Alleviate corporate tax rate; small break for lower earners.

Crime     Betsy DeVos: Require cross-examination of victims of sexual harassment.

Drugs     David Shulkin: VA research of marijuana restricted by federal law.

Education     Betsy DeVos: Cut funding if transgender students to compete by gender.     Ben Carson: Carson Scholars Fund: $7M in scholarships.     Betsy DeVos: Mother was public school teacher; Betsy was in-school mentor.     Scott Pruitt: Evolution is unproven theory.     Betsy DeVos: Use federal funds for private schools for military kids.     Betsy DeVos: Contributes to education to advance "God's Kingdom".

Energy & Oil     Rex Tillerson: Climate change real; with us now & forever more.     Rex Tillerson: Carbon tax best way to transition from fossil fuels.     Rex Tillerson: At Exxon, rose from production engineer to president.     Ryan Zinke: Increase coal, oil & gas mining access at National Monuments.     Ryan Zinke: Public lands opened for private company energy development.

Environment     Rick Perry: Simultaneous economic growth & environmental protection.     Ryan Zinke: End ban on lead bullets & fishing tackle in wildlife refuges.     Sonny Perdue: Responsibility is to leave the land better than we found it.     Mick Mulvaney: You can't drain the swamp and leave all the people in it.     Elaine Chao: Environmental regulations create roadblocks and delays.

Families & Children     Rex Tillerson: National President of the Boy Scouts from 2010 to 2012.

Foreign Policy     Mike Pompeo: Chinese Communist Party is enmeshed in our society.     Mike Pompeo: Chinese Communist Party co-opted World Health Organization.     Mike Pompeo: Benghazi was "worse, in some ways, than Watergate".     Mike Pompeo: America First; treat the world with some skepticism.     Mike Pompeo: Claims MIT snubbed him due to their China ties.     Mike Pompeo: Prevented G7 statement by insisting on using "Wuhan virus".     Donald Trump: Protect human rights in Hong Kong against China.     Donald Trump: Recognize 1967 Israel's annexation of Golan Heights.     Daniel Coats: China's goal is global superiority, including militarily.     Daniel Coats: China grows by investment; Russia by misdirection.     Nikki Haley: Helped broker U.N. sanctions on North Korea.     Nikki Haley: Obama was wrong to abstain on Cuba's anti-US resolution.     Daniel Coats: Criticizes government censorship & social controls in China.     Daniel Coats: China holds 1M Muslims in "patriotic re-education" camps.     Nikki Haley: Time to show people reasons to support the U.N.     Nikki Haley: US is world's conscience; participation in UN reflects that.     Nikki Haley: We will deal fairly with people who are fair to us.

Free Trade     Larry Kudlow: Trump's strategy on China tariffs is working.     Andrew Puzder: We need to stand up to China; we'll win trade war.     Sonny Perdue: Promote agricultural interests to international markets.     Sonny Perdue: USMCA trade pact important for workers, economy as a whole.     Sonny Perdue: Supports USMCA trade agreement to replace NAFTA.     Steve Mnuchin: Supports USMCA trade agreement to replace NAFTA.     Wilbur Ross: Supports USMCA trade agreement to replace NAFTA.     Sonny Perdue: Tariffs on China are painful now, but healthy later.     Steve Mnuchin: Free market proponent but tariffs OK to reduce trade deficit.     Wilbur Ross: Auto imports are threatening U.S. auto industry.     Steve Mnuchin: 3-part agenda: tax & regulatory relief; free & fair trade.     Steve Mnuchin: Free markets YES, but U.S. needs balanced trade agreements.     Sonny Perdue: Helped save NAFTA by showing Trump red state farmers need it.

Gun Control     Steve Mnuchin: Gun violence is tragedy and policy needs to be addressed.     Sonny Perdue: Legalized concealed weapons on public transportation.

Health Care     Steve Mnuchin: Repeal ObamaCare individual mandate for middle class tax cut.     Tom Price: Premise of ObamaCare is that Washington knows best.     Tom Price: Practicing orthopedic surgeon before entering politics.     David Shulkin: The VA is just as good or better than private health care.     Wilbur Ross: Young, healthy people enrolling in Obamacare is illogical.

Homeland Security     Jim Bridenstine: Intentional explosions in space pose risk to all spaceflight.     Donald Trump: Bar transgender troops from enlisting in military.     Nancy Pelosi: Ban on transgender troops enlisting in military is cowardly.     Daniel Coats: 1980s & 1990s: strengthen our national defense and security.     Rick Perry: 1970s: flew C-130 tactical airlift aircraft in Air Force.     Sonny Perdue: Food security is a key component of national security.     Wilbur Ross: Invoke national security to restrict imports on uranium.     David Shulkin: Largest modernization effort at VA in decades.     David Shulkin: A voluntary military might not work without good VA care.

Immigration     Antonin Scalia: DACA phase-out legally correct under administrative law.     Barack Obama: DACA recipients make America's shared ideals.     Brett Kavanaugh: DACA phase-out legally correct under administrative law.     Clarence Thomas: DACA phase-out legally correct under administrative law.     Donald Trump: DACA phase-out legally correct but politically controversial.     Jeff Sessions: DACA program was created without proper authority.     Joe Biden: Make DACA permanent; much work remains to be done.     Kirstjen Nielsen: DACA program undermines confidence in rule of law.     Samuel Alito: DACA phase-out legally correct; politics is not our business.     Ken Cuccinelli: Give me your poor, if they won't become a public charge.     Ken Cuccinelli: Give me your poor, if they won't become a public charge.     Ken Cuccinelli: Detain and then deport one million undocumented immigrants.     Elaine Chao: Immigrated to America at age 8; gained citizenship at age 19.     Wilbur Ross: Citizenship on census vital to enforce Voting Rights Act.     Jeff Sessions: Asylum was never meant to alleviate world's problems.     Larry Kudlow: Zero immigration till new system to stop ISIS is implemented.     Elaine Chao: Legality at the heart of immigration policy debate.     Nikki Haley: Refugee ban: What we did was take a pause.

Jobs     Larry Kudlow: You can't have a good job without a healthy business.     Larry Kudlow: Boost in unemployment insurance won't go on forever.     Andrew Puzder: Minimum wage hike will accelerate automation of jobs.

Principles & Values     Betsy DeVos: Resigned following violent protest at U.S Capitol.     Elaine Chao: Resigned following riot at the U.S. Capitol.     Donald Trump: Pardons Michael Flynn and Roger Stone in Russia probe.     Mike Pompeo: Denies that Trump undercuts US support for free elections.     Ben Carson: Coronavirus: Go about normal activities if you're healthy.     Rick Perry: Trump Is imperfect, but perhaps he's the 'Chosen One'.     Daniel Coats: Founded charity, The Foundation for American Renewal.     Mick Mulvaney: Lifelong Carolinas resident; graduate of UNC-Chapel Hill.     Mick Mulvaney: Founding member of Our Lady of Grace Catholic Mission.     Rick Perry: Longest-serving governor In Texas history.     Nikki Haley: Humbling to be a role model for girls and women.     Tom Price: Accused of insider trading; resigned due to travel expenses.     Ryan Zinke: No safe haven for neo-Nazi white nationalists.

Social Security     Larry Kudlow: Market's higher return trounces Social Security's low yield.     Steve Mnuchin: Focus of Presidential budget is not cutting entitlements.

Tax Reform     Larry Kudlow: Never believe the CBO: tax cuts will not increase deficit.     Steve Mnuchin: Implemented Trump's "Tax Cuts and Jobs Act".     Steve Mnuchin: Bypassing congress to cut taxes on capital gains possible.     Elaine Chao: Chao family foundation funds funneled into offshore firms.     Steve Mnuchin: Mathematically impossible to avoid tax cuts on wealthy.     Betsy DeVos: DeVos record includes advocating for tax cuts for the rich.

Technology     Daniel Coats: Russia abuses social media in anti-democracy information war.     Wilbur Ross: Space race to stimulate economic growth across industries.     Elaine Chao: Specialized in transportation financing in private sector.     Elaine Chao: Slow permitting process blocking private sector investments.

War & Peace     Mike Pompeo: Killing Soleimani "took a bad guy off the battlefield".     James Mattis: U.S. should keep a small force in Iraq.     James Mattis: U.S. should keep a small force in Syria.     James Mattis: U.S. should keep a small force in Afghanistan.     Mike Pompeo: Oppose Iran setting up Hezbollah targeting in Golan Heights.     Donald Trump: Russia violates the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces treaty.     Mike Pompeo: Withdraw from INF to counter Russia and China.     Daniel Coats: North Korea views nuclear weapons as critical to survival.     Daniel Coats: Iran escalating wars in Yemen and Syria, but not nukes.     James Mattis: Led Marines in Iraq, Afghanistan, and overall Mideast.     James Mattis: Resigns in wake of announcement of withdrawal from Syria.     Nikki Haley: Condemned Russia for criticizing US over Syria response.     James Mattis: Keep U.S. troops in Syria indefinitely to defeat ISIS.     Nikki Haley: Military action & sanctions against Syrian chemical weapons.     John Bolton: Abrogate the Iran nuclear deal; encourage Israel to attack.     Mike Pompeo: Negotiate from strength to denuclearize North Korea.     Nikki Haley: Peacekeeping forces should not be permanent.

Welfare & Poverty     Elaine Chao: Restored trust as CEO of United Way of America.     Larry Kudlow: Be tougher on spending, including entitlement reform.     Ben Carson: Eliminate income-based rent increases in public housing.     Ben Carson: Cycle people up and out of public housing developments.

Click for quotations from other sources by: Andrew Puzder Labor Secretary Nominee (rejected 2017) Antonin Scalia Republican Appointee to Supreme Court (deceased 2016) Barack Obama Democratic President (elected 2008) Ben Carson HUD Secretary Betsy DeVos Former Education Secretary Brett Kavanaugh Nominee for Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas Republican Appointee to Supreme Court Daniel Coats Indiana Director of National Intelligence David Shulkin Republican appointee as DVA Secretary Donald Trump Republican Presidential incumbent Elaine Chao Kentucky Former DOT Secretary James Mattis Defense Secretary 2017-2018 Jeff Sessions Alabama Attorney General 2017-2018 Jim Bridenstine Republican U.S. Rep Oklahoma-1 Joe Biden Democratic V.P. John Bolton National Security Advisor Ken Cuccinelli Virginia Republican Challenger Kirstjen Nielsen Secretary of Homeland Security Larry Kudlow Connecticut Former Council of Economic Advisers Linda McMahon Connecticut Former Small Business Administration Mick Mulvaney South Carolina Former Budget Director/Chief of Staff Mike Pompeo Kansas Former Secretary of State Nancy Pelosi Democrat U.S. Rep California-12 Nikki Haley South Carolina Former UN Ambassador 2017-2018 Rex Tillerson Secretary of State 2017-2018 Rick Perry Texas Former Secretary of Energy Ryan Zinke Montana Secretary of Interior 2017-2019 Samuel Alito Republican Appointee to Supreme Court Scott Pruitt EPA Director 2017-2018 Sonny Perdue Georgia Former USDA Secretary Steve Mnuchin Former Secretary of the Treasury Tom Price Georgia Secretary of Health and Human Services-2017 Wilbur Ross Former Secretary of Commerce