Thread: Trump expected to name Elaine Chao as transportation secretary: Reports

Former Labor Secretary Elaine Chao walks through the lobby as she arrives at Trump Tower, Monday, Nov. 21, 2016 in New York, to meet with President-elect Donald Trump. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

By S.A. Miller - The Washington Times - Updated: 11:38 a.m. on Tuesday, November 29, 2016

President-elect Donald Trump is expected to name as his secretary of transportation Elaine Chao, who ran the Labor Department under President George W. Bush, according to multiple reports.

The decision to nominate Ms. Chao, who is married to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, is expected later Tuesday.

Trump transition team spokesman Jason Miller said the president-elect was putting together a “dream team” of leaders from inside and outside government for the Trump administration.

Ms. Chao’s position at the helm of the Department of Transportation could be key to Mr. Trump’s plans for a massive infrastructure program that includes rebuilding roads and bridges throughout the country.

She would be the third woman and the first Asian American that Mr. Trump has picked for his Cabinet. He previously nominated South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley for U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and school reform activist Betsy DeVos for secretary of education.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/...ion-secretary/

Oh booo! RINO Mitch McConnell's wife in the Trump administration!??!? I pray this is only so Trump can fire Mitch's wife if he starts blocking bills the administration wants.

W

Yeah, this to me is his first bad appointment. She was an awful Secretary of Labor. She has absolutely no experience in building roads or engineering or anything associated with the task.

I thought we were supposed to be draining the swamp, not adding water to it? To me this is a very bad choice because the wife of our Senate Majority Leader, Mitch McConnell, holds a huge amount of influence over him.

Sorry honey, not tonight because I've got a headache. However, we can discuss it again once you bring that exceedingly generous transportation bill to the floor for a vote. Oh, and you'll get a special treat if you convincingly push it and vote yea. Hmm .......

Well, that part of it I actually support!! We need more appropriations for good roads, fix our bad bridges, modernize our airports, get better trains and other transportation-related infrastructure. I think that's money well spent, especially in a Trump administration because he's going to make sure these bids come in right and we don't overpay for stuff. Now's the time to get all that done, with a businessman who knows how to build and carries these numbers around in his head most of his life, so this will be when we get our biggest bang for the buck.

Maybe that's why he picked her, if so, then that might prove a wise decision after all, for that reason alone. Trump will be all over these numbers these departments are spending. He'll have a White House team of folks who will make sure we get great value and a good job for what we spend on, like we used to in the old days.

Originally Posted by Judy

Well, that part of it I actually support!! We need more appropriations for good roads, fix our bad bridges, modernize our airports, get better trains and other transportation-related infrastructure. I think that's money well spent, especially in a Trump administration because he's going to make sure these bids come in right and we don't overpay for stuff. Now's the time to get all that done, with a businessman who knows how to build and carries these numbers around in his head most of his life, so this will be when we get our biggest bang for the buck.

Maybe that's why he picked her, if so, then that might prove a wise decision after all, for that reason alone. Trump will be all over these numbers these departments are spending. He'll have a White House team of folks who will make sure we get great value and a good job for what we spend on, like we used to in the old days.

That way of thinking is part of the "swamp" mentality Trump was supposed to get us away from.

Hmmmm, I don't think you understood what he meant by draining the swamp. Draining the swamp means ending overpriced poor quality road construction with lower priced superior road construction. Same for bridges and airports and anything else we need to do, like building more levees and sea walls and safe fast trains that people want to ride.

I don't like Elaine Chao, didn't like her during the Bush Administration. But there's some reason Trump chose her, I'm just speculating on the political connection. Maybe she was a good money manager at the Department of Labor, that would be an asset, but she didn't do much for labor, not at all, that was my problem with her. Maybe she'll be great at road, bridge and airport construction, if not the actual work, maybe the contract and funding process.

Don't know, we'll just have to wait and see what he had in mind, probably funding more than anything for his infrastructure program he desperately wants but that some Republicans in Congress aren't all that excited about.

Originally Posted by Judy

Hmmmm, I don't think you understood what he meant by draining the swamp. Draining the swamp means ending overpriced poor quality road construction with lower priced superior road construction. Same for bridges and airports and anything else we need to do, like building more levees and sea walls and safe fast trains that people want to ride.

I don't like Elaine Chao, didn't like her during the Bush Administration. But there's some reason Trump chose her, I'm just speculating on the political connection. Maybe she was a good money manager at the Department of Labor, that would be an asset, but she didn't do much for labor, not at all, that was my problem with her. Maybe she'll be great at road, bridge and airport construction, if not the actual work, maybe the contract and funding process.

Don't know, we'll just have to wait and see what he had in mind, probably funding more than anything for his infrastructure program he desperately wants but that some Republicans in Congress aren't all that excited about.

"Drain the swamp" has been used by a handful of politicians in the past. Trump's usage of the metaphor is not unique and it can be understood to mean a number of things, including getting rid of political corruption and influence peddling in Washington.

There's no political corruption or influence peddling associated with Elaine Chao that I'm aware of. The reason I don't like her is because she came up with this stupid proposal to cut off automatic over-time pay for workers earning $11 an hour or less on the basis that they could get more hours if it didn't trigger over-time pay. If anyone deserves over-time pay it is the workers earning $11 an hour or less. It was just so wrong-headed, it was unbelievable. Fortunately, Congress rejected it, why Bush ever let something like that even go to Congress tells you all you need to know about him.

That's why I don't like her. She was trying to get people more hours of work to live on and there may have been some who said more hours at my existing wage would be better than nothing, but that's a race to the bottom and just wrong-headed, it also means they'd never get a raise above $11 an hour so any future wage improvement was destroyed by her plan. Just stupid, totally wrong, on all levels. I attributed it to her Chinese background, more at less is still more kind of thinking. That might work in China, but that won't fly here. And thankfully, it didn't.

Hopefully she'll be okay as Transportation Secretary, keeping costs down, maybe she was in the wrong job at Department of Labor, that all said, I wish he'd found someone else with a business or construction/engineering background.

So, we'll just see what happens and hope for the best. It's still befuddling, I wish there had been some publicity on it so we could have posted about her before the announcement.