{"id":19900,"date":"2019-07-15T18:31:00","date_gmt":"2019-07-16T02:31:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/associatednews.info\/content\/trump-taps-health-care-expert-as-acting-top-white-house-economist\/"},"modified":"2019-07-15T18:31:00","modified_gmt":"2019-07-16T02:31:00","slug":"trump-taps-health-care-expert-as-acting-top-white-house-economist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/associatednews.info\/content\/trump-taps-health-care-expert-as-acting-top-white-house-economist\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump Taps Health Care Expert As Acting Top White House Economist"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Scott Horsley<\/a><\/span> <\/p>\n

<\/a><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n

President Trump has named Tomas Philipson as acting chair of his Council of Economic Advisers. Philipson, who is already a member of the council, is a University of Chicago professor who specializes in the economics of health care.<\/p>\n

He previously served as a top economist at the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.<\/p>\n

Philipson takes over from White House economist Kevin Hassett, whose departure was announced on Twitter<\/a> last month.<\/p>\n

“I want to thank Kevin for all he has done,” Trump tweeted. “He is a true friend!”<\/p>\n

“I’m leaving on very good terms with the president,” Hassett said in an interview. He stressed that two years is a typical tenure for CEA leaders, many of whom come to the White House on loan from universities.<\/p>\n

“One of the reasons why CEA has stayed an objective resource over all these years is that the chairmen have tended to turn over after a couple of years, which is not really enough time to go native,” Hassett said. “If you stay here too long, then you might end up being too fond of all the political types over in the West Wing and it might be a little bit harder to tell them the difficult truths.”<\/p>\n