re Occam's razor, the simplest explanation is that mnuchin doesn't want the treasury plan delivered to potus until he has signed off on it, and he has been derailed by trade and sanction issues. one may also speculate that the HUD plan hasn't been finalized yet (I dont see HUD as a particularly efficient agency) and that the inter-agency review is still ongoing. there are many possibilities. I just dont think one of these possibilities is that Craig (if I may be so bold as to first name) was fired
btw I have found in life that the simplest explanation is usually wrong
edit: also, I dont believe that disputing that phillips was fired, or concluding that otting was just pep talking out of turn, is an example of confirmation bias. it simply means that I am unconvinced. real easy to be unconvinced that phillips was fired when he said multiple times he was going to finish his work on the plan and return to the private sector
edit 2: as for Occam's razor, occam was a philosopher critiquing other philosopher's speculations regarding metaphysics...not exactly transferable to a heuristic to explain human conduct