Are We Great Yet?

Candidate Trump was the Man With A Plan.  He was going to do many "great things" on his "very first day" and other items were put off to merely "one of the first things we are going to do."  All things were simple but it was going to take a smart businessman who knew how to get things done to make all of these changes.  He (candidate Trump) had his very own plans and "really great ideas." He was going to Make America Great Again.

Well you have to give him credit for one thing, he did have a really great slogan. It fit on ballcaps, tee-shirts, worked on yard signs, and it used mostly one and two syllable words.  The slogan worked exceptionally well for a man who thinks a thesaurus is a giant lizard that choked to death eating a caveman.

Thesaurus Rex
(Courtesy Assia Alexandrova)

We now have to ask ourselves, "Are We Great Yet?"  Let’s look at the Trump record of accomplishment.  The Reader's Digest summary of his time on the American stage would read that he has: made fun of the disabled, disparaged a Gold Star family, alienated our long-standing allies, made light of sexual assault, questioned the constitutional guarantee of a free press, and fired the FBI director investigating Russian interference in our election process.  I bring this up to briefly memorialize some of his finer moments.  But, getting on to more important matters...

Russian Translation, Make America Great Again

His Major Campaign Promises

He promised:  That he had a plan to build a beautiful 20’ tall wall that Mexico would pay for.

What he did:  He signed an executive order asking Congress to figure out how to build and pay for the wall.

Trump Builds His 20' Wall
(Has anyone thought of crowdfunding a Mexican based 25' ladder factory?)

What’s been done:  The 1,900+ mile wall is estimated to cost between $20 billion and $70 billion of US taxpayer capital.  To put that in perspective, the recently commissioned Gerald Ford class aircraft carrier was estimated to cost $14 billion while its actual final cost was $36.3 billion (typical government estimate accuracy).  Along the Mexican border there was already 694 miles of fencing in place.  Funds have now been budgeted to repair 40 miles of that existing fencing.

On July 20^th of 2017, Congress also approved funding for 28 miles of a levee wall and 46 miles of new fencing.  Neither party has expressed any desire to make funding of a border wall a priority.  Mexico certainly won’t pay for the wall and, even if a remittance tax is enacted, it wouldn’t provide the necessary funding.  The ultimate burden would fall to the American taxpayers.

The practicality of the wall is highly dubious.  Over 40% of illegal immigration comes to this country by car, plane or boat using legitimate visas. I would further venture that a border wall would have little to no impact in eliminating the importation of illicit drugs.  Planes, boats, trucks, and shipping containers will be used to circumvent any effort to curb the illegal drug trade.

The promised 1,900-mile WALL will end up being many miles of fencing, a 28-mile wall, electronic sensors and manned patrols.  Some form of border security is needed at all of our borders but, building a giant wall is not the best way to spend our tax dollars. More efficient methods are readily available.  The wall was just another ill conceived idea.

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He promised:  That he had a plan to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare).  There would be “insurance for everybody” with no cuts to Medicaid.  No one will lose coverage and “artificial lines around states” would be eliminated allowing people to buy insurance across state lines. 

What he did:  He told Congress to come up with a plan to repeal and replace the ACA.  When several attempts backfired he was quoted to say, "Now, I have to tell you, it's an unbelievably complex subject," he added, "Nobody knew health care could be so complicated."

What’s been done:  In a word, we're somewhere between nothing and not much.  Neither President Trump nor the Republican Party has any sound idea that wouldn’t cut Medicaid, raise rates, and reduce coverage.  No proposal yet put forward would accomplish even one of the President Trump’s promised improvements to health care.  He famously tweeted to the GOP that it was time to “keep your promise” on health care.  Note that he didn’t mention HIS promised plan on health care only that all recent failures were to be blamed on Congress.  As this was being written the Senate used the Vice President to break a 50-50 tie to advance a proposed bill for further debate.  Glaciers in the arctic are melting faster due to climate change than the Congress is moving on affordable health care.

Yes, the ACA in its current implementation, especially with the recent elimination of the individual mandate, is destined to eventually fail.  It is in dire need of repair.  Blaming Republicans for demanding change over the last six years and not having anymore of an idea on how to provide affordable health care than candidate Trump did, is not productive.  It's time to stop pointing fingers across the aisle and time to start rolling up your sleeves.

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He promised:  That he had a plan to cut the tax rate for middle-income taxpayers to 12.5% and zero percent for those making under $25,000.

What he did:  He issued a one page vague memorandum proposing a tax cut for the wealthiest Americans and a drop in the corporate tax rate to 15%.

What’s been done:  Nothing.  Aside from some negotiations with Congress and the one page memo, nothing has been done.

Congress Working On Tax Plan

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Other "accomplishments"

Environment:  While ignoring an overwhelming body of scientific evidence he has denied climate change, pulled out of the Paris Climate Agreement, cancelled rules protecting whales and sea turtles from fishing nets, made a budget proposal to cut the EPA budget 31%, appointed anti-EPA activist Scott Pruitt to head the EPA, forced the removal of climate data from the EPA website, ordered a review of our public lands and national monuments to see which of those could be opened for development, rejected a planned ban of the pesticide chlorpyrifos that causes brain damage in children and farm workers, gutted the EPA Clean Power Plan to reduce CO₂ emissions, and removed restrictions on the dumping of coal mine waste into our waterways.

WHY?

NATO:  President Trump said NATO was obsolete.  He later changed his mind stating; “I said it [NATO] was obsolete” “It’s no longer obsolete.”  He realized that our fight on terrorism benefited from our support of NATO.

NATO Flag

China:  Candidate Trump pledged to label China as a “currency manipulator” on his first day in office.  He has since abandoned that pledge.

Torture:  During the campaign Mr. Trump said he would approve waterboarding immediately and “make it also much worse”, and further stated, “torture works”.  He later deferred to the desires of his Defense Secretary James Mattis and CIA director Mike Pompeo, effectively abandoning this course of action.

Waterboarding

Infrastructure:  During his victory speech in November, President-elect Trump stated that the country’s infrastructure , “will become, by the way, second to none and we will put millions of our people back to work as we rebuild it”.  To date no action has been taken to rebuild our crumbling infrastructure.

Jobs:  Candidate and President Trump promised to promote jobs in America.  To Keep America First and “Buy American and Hire American”.  Not only are his clothing lines made “Not in America” he annually files for H-2B visas to hire foreign workers for his Mar-a-Lago Club.  While the local West Palm Beach employment office has over 2,000 applicants wanting those service industry jobs, President “Hire-American” Trump plans to hire 15 housekeepers, 35 waiters, and 20 cooks from overseas.  He filed the visa requests, adding insult to injury, during “Made in America Week.”  He is also expanding the H-2B visa program to add another 15,000 foreign workers to our employment rolls.

Mar-a-Lago Hires Foreign Cooks using H-2B Visa Program
Apparently No American Cooks Were Available to Fill the Position

Summary

In summary, it would seem that Candidate Trump had no plans.  His only plan to Make America Great Again was to delegate the details to others.  This may work well in the business world but, as we see, doesn't work so well over in the government sector.  President Trump is trying to delegate all planning to the same government he has called ineffective.  While I agree with his analysis of Congress, the fact that he wants to dump all responsibility for the plans he said he had on that same government body, epitomises his hubris.

President Trump "talks the talk" but doesn't "walk the walk."  He is rhetoric without substance.  His plan to Make America Great Again has not provided any improvement in the plight of the middle class Americans and blue collar workers who helped put him in office.  These very same people remain hopeful.  They regularly attend his ongoing campaign-style "can I still get some applause please" rallies.  He is still just talking the talk.

Trump's White House Staff Analyze a Current Problem

He is fighting to keep Mexicans on their side of the border and is trying to ban Muslims from entering the country.  At the very same time, he wants to expand the H-2B visa program to allow more foreign workers to fill low wage jobs at his properties and those of other wealthy business owners.

He has managed to punch through a few things to make the wealthiest among us more wealthy.  His laissez-faire capitalistic spin on trickle down economics (aka Reaganomics) didn't work in Reagan's days, didn't work during the Bush years, and won't work now.  Correction, they did help the rich get very, very rich.

Opening the spigot of capitalism at the very top only fills the coffers of those who reside at the top. The very wealthy have become astute at finding ways to keep their money out of the mythical stream that runs beyond their neighborhood. The people further down the economic food chain barely get damp from the "trickle down" that makes it that far.

Trickle Down Economics At Work

Meaningful solutions to the job losses suffered by our manufacturing communities have yet to be proposed.  Factories remain shuttered.  Jobs will still go to those willing to work for less, wherever they reside in the world.  Coal mining will not rebound while natural gas remains a less expensive option. Health care will never be inexpensive, especially while insurance companies and pharmaceutical manufacturers are allowed to make obscene profits.  Revising the ACA is clearly needed but universal affordable coverage will be painful to someone.

As a great visionary, President Trump has been shown to be a bit myopic.

Our Visionary President

The Make America Great Again balloon is full of the hot air that symbolizes Washington, D.C., and President Trump keeps the gondola basket loaded with his empty promises.

Hot Air Balloon Delivering Empty Promises

I postulate that America was always great.  It continues to be great. It is certainly greater than most of the alternatives.  Like any family this large, we have room for improvement. We need to continually revisit what we are doing to see how we can make things better.  Not only for the privileged few at the pinnacle of our pyramid of wealth, but also for the citizen base that provides the foundation of our democracy.