Stephen Moore, an adviser on Brownback’s tax cuts, won’t serve on Federal Reserve
One of the architects of former Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback’s tax cuts won’t be taking a prestigious seat on the Federal Reserve’s board of governors.
President Donald Trump announced on Twitter Thursday that economist Stephen Moore had withdrawn from consideration before his name had even been formally submitted to the U.S. Senate. His prospects for confirmation had dwindled for weeks as details about his personal finances and past misogynistic writing emerged.
Moore’s role in Brownback’s tax plan was also a recurring point of criticism.
On Wednesday, Sen. Tina Smith, D-Minnesota, pointed to how The Kansas City Star stopped publishing pieces from Moore after falsehoods in a 2014 article he wrote defending the tax plan.
Moore took credit for advising Brownback to pursue his “march to zero,” an aggressive income tax cutting strategy that was blamed for budget shortfalls before lawmakers overrode Brownback’s veto to repeal it in 2017.
“I wouldn’t let Stephen Moore within 100 yards of my enemy’s piggy bank, let alone the Federal Reserve,” Annie McKay, president and CEO of Kansas Action for Children, told The Star in reference to Moore’s role in the Kansas tax cuts.
Moore served as Trump’s economic adviser during the 2016 campaign and played a role in designing Trump’s tax cuts.
Trump said on Twitter that Moore that “won the battle of ideas including Tax Cuts” and he’s asked him “to work with me toward future economic growth in our Country.”
It’s the second time in two weeks that the president has had to walk back one of his selections for two vacancies on the seven-member Fed board, which oversees monetary policy and the banking industry.
Last week, Trump announced that businessman Herman Cain had withdrawn from consideration just days after a defiant speech at the University of Kansas.
Both prospective nominations prompted backlash from lawmakers of both parties, but Sen. Jerry Moran, R-Kansas, a member of the committee that would have weighed the nominations, said he made no conclusions about either Moore or Cain before their withdrawals.
“Nobody’s been nominated, so nobody had anything to withdraw from,” Moran said.
This story was originally published May 2, 2019 at 1:13 PM.
