Unexpectedly, Bernie Sanders just went rogue. By bucking Democrat leadership, he might have saved Trump’s nominee for budget director from Minority Leader Chuck Schumer.
In the Budget Committee and on live television, Sanders called Rep. Mick Mulvaney, R-S.C., an honest man, despite having enough excuses to say otherwise. Schumer has been on the warpath for Trump nominees and he desperately needs a scalp. Until a moment ago, Democrats thought they might have one in Mulvaney’s having failed to pay taxes on his nanny.
Until Tuesday, the South Carolina congressman seemed sunk. When his wife had premature triplets, he paid a nanny to help her. He did not, however, pay $15,000 in FICA taxes. For Democrats, the nanny-tax lapse was the smoking gun that would catch the conservative’s nomination on fire.
“When other previous cabinet nominees failed to pay their fair share in taxes, Senate Republicans forced those nominees to withdraw from consideration,” Schumer said. “If failure to pay taxes was disqualifying for Democratic nominees, then the same should be true for Republican nominees.”
This morning, Mulvaney explained that he reported the mistake on his own. He testified that he had paid the tax bill. And he apologized for the mistake. And Sanders, instead of capitalizing by haranguing him for the mistake, gave his seal of approval without much hesitation. “Congressman Mulvaney, I have talked to some members of the House, whose values are very different than yours, but they say that you’re a straight shooter and that you’re honest and I appreciate that,” he said. “That’s a good quality in a member of Congress.”
If this is the moment that seals Mulvaney’s fate, it will be ironic: Two ideologues are from opposite ends of the spectrum. Sanders is a self-described democratic-socialist and Mulvaney, a hardcore conservative.
Still, and to Schumer’s chagrin, even those political differences were not toxic for Mulvaney.
Philip Wegmann is a commentary writer for the Washington Examiner.
