Variety- Speaking at the Milken Institute Global Conference on Monday, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross recalled the scene at Mar-a-Lago on April 6, when the summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping was interrupted by the strike on Syria.

�Just as dessert was being served, the president explained to Mr. Xi he had something he wanted to tell him, which was the launching of 59 missiles into Syria,� Ross said. �It was in lieu of after-dinner entertainment.�

As the crowd laughed, Ross added: �The thing was, it didn�t cost the president anything to have that entertainment.�

Ross, a billionaire financier, is new to government service. In the lunchtime conversation with David Rubenstein, co-CEO of the Carlyle Group, Ross reflected on his first impressions of public service.
�I�ve been heartened,� he said. �I thought the quality of people in the government was not as high as it has turned out to be. There are actually quite a lot of very good, very serious, very intelligent people wanting to do their best. It�s just they�ve been trapped in a fundamentally dysfunctional system.�
The president�s tax cut proposal has been a hot topic among the business community at this year�s conference. Rubenstein asked Ross whether it was realistic to expect a tax plan to pass this year.

�I certainly hope so,� he said. �God knows Congress has debated the issue enough times. It�s really a question of, �Is there the willpower to do it?� If the Republican side can get itself unified, then it will work, even if the Democrats remain as determined as they seem to be to block any kind of progress.�