Donald Trump has argued that the 100-day mark is not set in stone and that it is an unfair measure of his administration. Never mind that Trump, himself, committed to a contract to you, the voter, outlining what he was to accomplish in his first 100 days in office.
You can view the original pledge by following this link.
As you can see, Trump promised to “work with Congress to introduce the following broader legislative measures”. He also promised to “fight for their passage within the first 100 days” of his administration. His words, not mine.
So, let’s look at what he promised and what he accomplished.
1. Middle Class Tax Relief and Simplification Tax: Although Donald Trump released a broad stroke set of guidelines for tax relief last week, they are nowhere close to being adopted by Congress. Even the broad strokes elicit a set of problems that would make it impossible for the Congress to adopt them. For example, as outlined, the tax reform package would encourage most U.S. taxpayers to become LLC’s to benefit from a lower tax rate then what Trump’s plan contemplates. Imagine that, almost all U.S. citizens walking around as LLC’s across the country.
2. End the Outshore Act. Trump promised to impose tariffs to bring back jobs to the country. Trump reasoned that by imposing tariffs, it would stop companies from setting up shop in other countries for cheaper labor. Other than imposing a tariff on lumber, which has nothing to do with jobs going to other countries, Trump has done nothing to discourage U.S. companies from going offshore.
3. American Energy and Infrastructure Act, Affordable Childcare and Elder Act, End Illegal Immigration Act, Restoring Community Safety Act, Restoring National Security Act and the Clean Up Corruption in Washington Act. Although Donald Trump has issued several executive orders to address some of these issues, the fact remains that Trump has been unable to get Congress, led by the Republicans in both houses, to enact any legislation to enforce his promises. Executive orders, by their nature, are not long-lasting and thus subject to changes from incoming new administrations. Trump, himself, has reversed several Obama executive orders. Nonetheless, without Congress creating the necessary laws, the promises made by Trump have not been kept. Furthermore, Trump has yet to propose any legislation to keep any of these promises.
4. Repeal and Replace Obamacare Act. By any measure, Donald Trump failed miserably in keeping this promise to do away with ObamaCare within his first 100-days in office.
Along with the contract, 18 proposals divided into three topics – clean up corruption, protect American workers and restore security and the constitutional rule of law were included in his contract.
Except for the “propose a constitutional amendment to impose term limits on all members of Congress,” Trump kept most of his promises in the realm of ending corruption through various executive orders.
Regarding protecting the American worker, Trump proposed seven things. Trump issued executive orders to withdraw from the Trans-Pacific Partnership and end Obama-era impediments to energy projects. Trump has also started the process of identifying “foreign trade abuses” that impact U.S. workers. However, it remains unclear how the studies would resolve the issue of unfair competition from foreign governments.
Trump has yet to act on “cancelling billions in U.N. climate change programs.”
The key issues of “to renegotiate NAFTA or withdraw” from it has failed. Trump has taken withdrawing off the table for now and has embarked on renegotiating. However, leaked memorandum demonstrates that the key issues that Trump railed against are not part of the negotiations. The negotiations have substantially been dialed back. Additionally, the Trump administration is on a tight deadline to end the negotiations as México begins the transition to a new government in 2018.
Donald Trump had promised to “label China a currency manipulator.” Trump has officially declined to do so.
The five actions that Trump promised to “restore security” remain largely unfulfilled. He has cancelled most of Obama’s executive orders and had his nominee replace Justice Scalia at the Supreme Court. He has also begun to remove undocumented immigrants, but the success of his removal programs is still being debated.
His two attempts to “suspend immigration from terror-prone” countries have been suspended twice by the courts due to the ineptitude of the Trump administration. Likewise, his cancelling of “all federal funds to sanctuary cities” was also suspended by a court.
Donald Trump ran on a platform of making bold promises to his constituency. Trump promised that as a businessman he would be able to keep his promises as he was a grand negotiator.
By any fair measure, Donald Trump’s major promises to his electorate for his first 100-days in office are a failure, notwithstanding the propaganda being emanated by him and his cohorts.
Martin, the theory that the tax plan would drive folks to become LLCs is totally Dem spin. I own an S-corp. The IRS audits the hell out of S-corps that fail to pay owner salaries in line with the salaries being paid in the local market. In short, there is already a check and balance in place. Plus your salary determines what you get paid in social security so if you take all your income in distributions from your S-corp then your social security payments will be very low. Finally, many states tax the hell out of s-corps and in some cases charge a minimum tax regardless of whether or the S-corp has revenue. So it is unlikely that folks will rush to this. That said, I have an s-corp because I opted for self employment when the industry I was in consolidated. Starting a business is one way many folks who would otherwise be hard to employ have continued to contribute to the economy. A tax plan that finally rewards us for taking that risk is a beautiful thing. As far as the rest of your column, I’m happy that President Trump is moving forward in spite of Congressional opposition to just about everything he does. He is listening to advice and modifying positions where prudent. His supporters are still his supporters because we recognized he would do that.
Anglocentric
Sorry to say you are wasting your time trying to point this out to Martin or Pati or any on the the Tit tard lunatic fringe left. No matter what Trump does for this crowd he will always be wrong short of Trump embracing socialism and the lunatic non-sense of the fascist Tit tard left. Trump could be shoving gold bars up their behind and they would be whining,complaining and wringing their hand to how bad Trump is. Also do not point out Obama did not do a lot of lasting long term of substance in his first 100 days in Office. It’s just more crazy we lost and are mad from the lunatic Tit tard left.