Is Jared Kushner Indicative of an Irresponsible Administration?

         Jennifer Rubin is a writer for the Washington post who offers a conservative perspective on the current political news. Along with her blog “Right Turn”, she also writes opinion pieces regarding domestic and foreign policy issues.  In a recent opinion piece titled Jared Kushner encapsulates what’s wrong with the Trump administration, she explains why she believes Jared Kushner is an unqualified and potentially dangerous senior advisor to Donald Trump, and how Kushner’s employment within the White House is indicative of a mismanaged administration.
    She begins her argument by highlighting Kushner’s glaring lack of political experience and non-existent credibility within the political realm claiming that he at best “might be employable as an intern”.  Along with pointing out his lack of experience Rubin also stresses the fact the Kushner has never received the permanent security clearance necessary to read confidential reports. Despite not having the permanent security clearance Kushner has continued to be allowed to read highly classified documents and “reportedly makes more requests for intelligence materials than any other non-National Security Council adviser”. Rubin uses the facts that Kushner is under qualified and has been allowed access to classified information for over a year without clearance as a strong indictment of what is wrong with Trumps administration.
        Another way Rubin demonstrates the ineptitude of the administration is by explaining how “one transgression beget[s] more”. Her argument is that an administration that will hire someone solely through nepotism, ignore the gravity of security clearances, and allow inappropriate contact with Russians is clearly an indication that it is irresponsible. The political implications that arise from a White House that ignores serious issues such as security clearances are troubling because it either implies complete ineptitude and carelessness, or the support of treasonous activities like Russian collusion. It is unclear which is the case, but Rubin seems to imply it is probably a combination of both.
         I believe Rubin makes a strong and effective argument for why Kushner’s appointment as an advisor is a reflection of what is wrong with the Trump administration. She shows how many early bad decisions that this admiration has made are now “coming home to roost”. Since she represents a conservative perspective on the situation I believe her goal is to convince other conservatives of the irresponsibility of Trumps administration. She does this by stressing Kushner’s lack of experience, and access to classified documents while having suspicious Russian connections, and how all of these “reflect Trump’s own refusal to grasp the responsibilities of his office”.

Another Possible Government Shutdown

On Thursday, February 8th the New York Times posted an article titled Facing Shutdown, Congress Set to Vote on Sweeping Budget Deal which discusses the new government spending bill and the controversy surrounding it. If the bill does not pass by midnight on the 8th there will be a temporary shutdown of government spending.  The new deal is expected to be met with some opposition from Democrats who don't believe the bill provides enough funding for immigrants. The bill is expected to easily pass in the Senate but will not have such an easy time in the House. Some of the key changes the new deal proposes include raising domestic and military spending to caps by nearly 300 billion, providing 90 billion in disaster relief funds, and most importantly it will keep the government funded for another six weeks allowing it time to construct a "long-term" spending bill that will cover the remainder of the fiscal year.
The new bill has become controversial to both political parties. Some Republicans, like those in the House Freedom Caucus, believe the increase in spending is too large, and have subsequently "formally opposed" the bill. Some Democrats dislike the bill because they don't believe it provides enough funding to help the undocumented young immigrants known as "Dreamers". Because the bill is not garnering much bipartisan support the odds of avoiding a government shutdown seems unlikely.

This article is worth reading because it highlights how complex and difficult it is to succesfully pass a bill through Congress. All of the competing interest groups want funding and there is never enough to satisfy everyone. I think it is a good example of Madisons idea that a large representative republic with cause majority parties to fragment and prevent them from steam rolling minorities.