Observations from Robert Reich, American political commentator, professor, and author. He served in the administrations of Presidents Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter and was Secretary of Labor under President Bill Clinton from 1993 to 1997
So what promises HAS Trump kept?
One year after the election. An update for Trump voters on his election promises:
1. He told you he’d repeal Obamacare and replace it with something “beautiful.” You bought it. But he didn’t repeal and he didn’t replace. (Just as well: His plan would have knocked at least 23 million off health insurance, including many of you. Instead he's sabotaging the ACA causing premiums to increase even more)
2. He told you he’d cut your taxes. You bought it. But the tax “reform” bill he and House Republicans have produced won’t cut your taxes. Half of the middle class would see their taxes increase. The bill would cut corporate taxes and give millionaires a huge is tax break, and explode the national debt by at least $1.5 trillion.
3. He told you he’d invest $1 trillion in our nation’ crumbling infrastructure. You bought it. But after his giant tax cut for corporations and millionaires, there’s no money left for infrastructure.
4. He said he’d clean the Washington swamp. You bought it. But he’s brought into his administration more billionaires, CEOs, and Wall Street moguls than in any administration in history, to make laws that will enrich their businesses, and he’s filled departments and agencies with former lobbyists, lawyers and consultants who are crafting new policies for the same industries they recently worked for.
5. He said he’d use his business experience to whip the White House into shape. You bought it. But he created the most chaotic, dysfunctional, back-stabbing White House in modern history, and has already fired and replaced so many assistants (one of them hired and fired in a little more than a week) that no one knows who’s in charge of what.
6. He said he’d close “special interest loopholes that have been so good for Wall Street investors but unfair to American workers.” You bought it. But he picked Wall Street financiers to head every economic policy job, and his tax bill still retains the “carried interest” loophole that benefits Wall Street private-equity and hedge fund partners.
7. He told you he’d “bring down drug prices” by making deals with drug companies. You bought it. But now the White House says that promise is “inoperative.”
8. He said that on Day One he’d label China a “currency manipulator.” You bought it. But then he met with China’s president Xi Jinping and declared "China is not a currency manipulator.” Ever since then, Trump has been cozying up to Xi.
9. He said he wouldn’t bomb Syria. You bought it. But then he bombed Syria.
10. He said he’d build a “wall” across the southern border. You believed him. But there’s no money for that, either. Chief of staff John Kelly says it is “unlikely that we will build a wall, a physical barrier, from sea to shining sea.”
11. He called Barack Obama “the vacationer-in-Chief” and accused him of playing more rounds of golf than Tiger Woods. He promised to never be the kind of president who took cushy vacations on the taxpayer’s dime, not when there was so much important work to be done. You bought it. But in his first 9 months he has spent nearly 25 percent of his days at one of his golf properties for some portion of the day, according to Golf News Network, at a cost to taxpayers of an estimated $77 million. That’s already more taxpayer money on vacations than Obama cost in the first 3 years of his presidency. Not to mention all the money taxpayers are spending protecting his family, including his two sons who travel all over the world on Trump business.
12. He said he’d keep Muslim immigrants out of America. But his executive orders to prevent citizens from predominantly Muslim countries from entering the United States have been stopped by the federal courts, on grounds they violate the Constitution.
13. He said he’d force companies to keep jobs in America, and that there would be “consequences” for companies that shipped jobs abroad. You believed him. But despite their promises, Carrier, Ford, GM, and the rest have continued to ship jobs to Mexico and China. Carrier (a division of United Technologies) moved ahead with plans to send 1,000 jobs at its Indiana plant to Mexico.
Notwithstanding, the federal government has rewarded United Technologies with 15 new contracts since Trump's inauguration. Last year, Microsoft opened a new factory in Wilsonville, Oregon, that was supposed to herald a new era in domestic tech manufacturing. But in July, the company announced it was closing the plant. More than 100 workers and contractors will lose their jobs when production shifts to China. GE is sending jobs to Canada. IBM is sending them to Costa Rica, Egypt, Argentina, and Brazil. There have been no “consequences” for sending all these jobs overseas.
14. He said he’d create coal jobs. You believed him. He hasn’t. But here’s what he has done: Since 1965 a federal program called the Appalachian Regional Commission has spent $23 billion helping communities in coal states fund job retraining, reclaim land, and provide desperately needed social services. A.R.C. helped cut poverty rates almost in half, double the percentage of high-school graduates, and reduce infant mortality by two-thirds. Trump’s proposed budget eliminated A.R.C.
15. He said he’d make America safer. You believed him. But according to Mass Shooting Tracker, there have been 377 mass shootings so far this year, including 58 people killed and hundreds injured at a concert in Las Vegas, and 26 churchgoers killed and 20 injured at a church in Texas. Trump refuses to consider any gun controls.
16. In referring to his opponent in the 2016 presidential election, Hillary Clinton, he said he’d “lock her up.” But he has not locked her up. In the United States, unlike dictatorships, presidents do not prosecute and punish their political opponents. Trump has expressed frustration that he cannot order the FBI and Justice Department to do whatever he wants them to do."
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