There’s an old saying that “personnel is policy” in filling the top positions in an administration. More precisely, if you want a policy to be pursued and protected, hire those most committed to it.

But Donald Trump doesn’t appear to be following that rule in the case of his supply-side tax reform. The architect of the tax plan is Larry Kudlow, the well-known economist whose views reflect those of Trump. Kudlow, however, was passed over Sunday when the president-elect chose Gary Cohn of Goldman Sachs to head the National Economic Council (NEC) in the White House.