Mulvaney quickly staked out ground as one of Congress’s most outspoken fiscal hawks — playing a key role in the 2011 showdown between President Obama and House Republicans that ended in the passage of strict budget caps. In a statement announcing his selection, Trump called Mulvaney a strong voice in Congress for “reining in out-of-control spending, fighting government waste and enacting tax policies that will allow working Americans to thrive.” 
 
 “With Mick at the head of OMB, my administration is going to make smart choices about America’s budget, bring new accountability to our federal government, and renew the American taxpayer’s trust in how their money is spent,” Trump said.  President-elect Donald Trump said Saturday he would nominate Rep. Mick Mulvaney (R., S.C.) as his budget director, which would place a fiscal conservative who has warned against larger deficits in charge of the White House Office of Management and Budget. A founding member of the House Freedom Caucus, a group of about three dozen conservative hard-liners that has used its leverage to push Republican leaders to the right, Mulvaney was among the group of lawmakers widely credited with pushing House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) out of power in 2015. Mulvaney said the Trump administration “will restore budgetary and fiscal sanity back in Washington”. “In Congress, he has been a conservative reformer from day one, proposing solutions to fix the budget process and our regulatory system.” 
 
 “At OMB, he will lead the work he has started to improve the way government does the people’s business,” he added. Among Mulvaney’s chief duties will be overseeing the most dramatic overhaul of the nation’s tax code since President Ronald Reagan.
– Donald Trump says he's picked a "high-energy leader" who will "save our country from drowning in red ink" to be the next White House budget director, the Wall Street Journal reports. Pending Senate confirmation, US Rep. Mick Mulvaney of South Carolina will head the Office of Management and Budget, Trump announced Saturday. The Washington Post notes Mulvaney, elected during the Tea Party wave in 2010, has been an "outspoken fiscal hawk" who's pushed for spending cuts even when they force him to oppose his own party, as he has on defense spending. "You can't just like spending that your party wants and dislike spending the other party wants," the Journal quotes Mulvaney as saying. As budget director, Mulvaney will be involved in shaping many of Trump's proposals, likely including changes to the tax code, increased spending on infrastructure, and the repeal of ObamaCare. Trump says Mulvaney will help his administration "make smart choices about America's budget," Reuters reports. But many of Trump's proposals seem to go against Mulvaney's staunch opposition to increasing the national debt. Trump wants $1 trillion in new infrastructure spending—an amount opposed by Republican leaders—and it's unclear where that money will come from. He also wants increased defense spending, which Mulvaney himself has opposed. Finally, nonpartisan experts say Trump's tax plan alone would add at least $2.6 trillion to the debt over the next 10 years.