NPR kindly reproduced President Trump’s pronouncements on what he intends to do within 100 days of taking office. One of the guys at this morning’s Scottsdale Business Association meeting passed it around.
Let’s consider these gems and, being accomplished members of the peanut gallery as we are, now and again opine:
What follows is my 100-day action plan to Make America Great Again. It is a contract between myself and the American voter — and begins with restoring honesty, accountability and change to Washington
Therefore, on the first day of my term of office, my administration will immediately pursue the following six measures to clean up the corruption and special interest collusion in Washington, DC:
* FIRST, propose a Constitutional Amendment to impose term limits on all members of Congress;
Depends on the limit. As a practical matter, federal elected representatives need a lot of time in office to learn their jobs, to build understanding and alliances, and to learn to stick up for their constituencies. Besides, Mr. Trump can propose as much as he wants…good luck fazing it past a Congress whose members will have other ideas.
* SECOND, a hiring freeze on all federal employees to reduce federal workforce through attrition (exempting military, public safety, and public health);
So much for putting America’s former middle class back to work. See my reply to Money Beagle on the subject here. Unless our man snaps out of it, a move like this is likely to bring on a new recession. Almost 22 million people work for the federal government; many, many more work for private employers that contract to the US government. There’s no way private industry can absorb that many unemployed workers.
* THIRD, a requirement that for every new federal regulation, two existing regulations must be eliminated;
Arbitrary, stupid, and impracticable. Let’s focus on regulations you believe should be eliminated, do the job on them, and then think more carefully about new ones.
* FOURTH, a 5 year-ban on White House and Congressional officials becoming lobbyists after they leave government service;
Hmm… Possibly not a bad idea. But I don’t know enough about it to express more than a gut reaction.
* FIFTH, a lifetime ban on White House officials lobbying on behalf of a foreign government;
Oh, you mean on behalf of Mr. Putin?
Sorry, that was unkind… I don’t know whether that’s a good or a bad idea. Who is more likely to be fully knowledgeable about a foreign country and the intricacies of its relations with the US than a someone who has spent time in the White House? This could be a Draconian and impractical scheme.
* SIXTH, a complete ban on foreign lobbyists raising money for American elections.
Okay, I can go for that. Is it legal now? Apparently not. And yet apparently a fair amount of foreign lobbying cash finds its way into the pockets of politicians’ campaigns.
On the same day, I will begin taking the following 7 actions to protect American workers:
* FIRST, I will announce my intention to renegotiate NAFTA or withdraw from the deal under Article 2205
Well…y’know… That might not make me too crabby, though I think it’s closing the barn door after the horse has run off. NAFTA had done good things for us and bad things for us. It’s a mixed bag. What specifically do you plan to renegotiate, sir?
* SECOND, I will announce our withdrawal from the Trans-Pacific Partnership
Go for it, dude.
* THIRD, I will direct my Secretary of the Treasury to label China a currency manipulator
Oh, yeah? And this will have what effect, on what specifically? Here’s what the guy is talking about, explained in words of one or two syllables. However, it’s a very complex issue. You’ll need to read the entire article to get even a vague handle on it, and then you’ll see that a lot of unintended consequences will be lurking in the wings behind that stage.
* FOURTH, I will direct the Secretary of Commerce and U.S. Trade Representative to identify all foreign trading abuses that unfairly impact American workers and direct them to use every tool under American and international law to end those abuses immediately
Good luck with that, boss!
* FIFTH, I will lift the restrictions on the production of $50 trillion dollars’ worth of job-producing American energy reserves, including shale, oil, natural gas and clean coal.
You, too, will be breathing contaminated air and drinking contaminated water. Hoooboy!
Y’know, I grew up living next to a refinery in Saudi Arabia: a totally unrestricted, unregulated refinery. You wanna talk about cancer clusters? Lemme tell you about cancer clusters.
A wholesale demolition of regulation and restriction on petroleum mining in this country would be extraordinarily stupid and destructive to people who live within many, many miles of the plants involved. But…
On the other hand, there’s a whole lot to be said for beefing up American oil production enough to free us from dependence on countries that, at heart, are our enemies and have been our enemies as long as we have been present in those countries — since early in the 20th century.
There is, however, a great deal more to be said in favor of encouraging, funding, and nurturing alternative energy sources. We need solar power. Every house in this country, every office building in this country, should be getting some or all of its energy from solar panels. Every car should run on electric power. And yeah…I do know that electric power plants emit pollution, too: but the same amount of chemicals coming from one source is a lot easier to sequester and control than crud coming out of millions and millions of cars, homes, and industries.
* SIXTH, lift the Obama-Clinton roadblocks and allow vital energy infrastructure projects, like the Keystone Pipeline, to move forward
See above.
* SEVENTH, cancel billions in payments to U.N. climate change programs and use the money to fix America’s water and environmental infrastructure
Given that there’s not a damn thing we can do about climate change — it’s too late for that — this might not be a bad idea. Demoralizing, pointless in the long run, but useful in the short run.
Additionally, on the first day, I will take the following five actions to restore security and the constitutional rule of law:
* FIRST, cancel every unconstitutional executive action, memorandum and order issued by President Obama
Pure, noxious spite. This, unfortunately, demonstrates exactly why Mr. Trump should not be President of the United States.
* SECOND, begin the process of selecting a replacement for Justice Scalia from one of the 20 judges on my list, who will uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States
Kiss your reproductive rights good-bye, ladies. And let’s all of us say good-bye to freedom from having other people’s religion shoved down our throats.
* THIRD, cancel all federal funding to Sanctuary Cities
Define “sanctuary city.” The term has no legal meaning. Thus it would appear that this scheme is arbitrary and probably illegal. Just because you personally don’t like someone, or someone’s city, doesn’t mean you can use the power of your office to punish them. That’s what we call “dictatorship.”
* FOURTH, begin removing the more than 2 million criminal illegal immigrants from the country and cancel visas to foreign countries that won’t take them back
About 11.4 million immigrants are in this country illegally. How exactly do you define the ones that are “criminal”? Since the bigots to whom you have pandered so extravagantly regard all illegal immigrants as “criminal,” why not propose to eject all 11.4 million of them? And by the way, who is going to clean your rich friends’ homes, mow your rich friends’ estates, and harvest food for all those folks who voted for you?
* FIFTH, suspend immigration from terror-prone regions where vetting cannot safely occur. All vetting of people coming into our country will be considered extreme vetting.
As a blanket policy, that’s inhumane and paranoid. I could get on board with screening refugees more carefully, but blocking innocent people who will be killed if they stay in their home countries? Not so much.
Next, I will work with Congress to introduce the following broader legislative measures and fight for their passage within the first 100 days of my Administration:
1. Middle Class Tax Relief And Simplification Act. An economic plan designed to grow the economy 4% per year and create at least 25 million new jobs through massive tax reduction and simplification, in combination with trade reform, regulatory relief, and lifting the restrictions on American energy. The largest tax reductions are for the middle class. A middle-class family with 2 children will get a 35% tax cut. The current number of brackets will be reduced from 7 to 3, and tax forms will likewise be greatly simplified. The business rate will be lowered from 35 to 15 percent, and the trillions of dollars of American corporate money overseas can now be brought back at a 10 percent rate.
Uh huh. and how do you propose to run the federal government’s basic services? Oh yeah: kill the beast. Clever.
This is exceptionally stupid and another example of pandering to ill-informed resentment. Nothing is going to bring American manufacturing back to this country as long as a manufacturer can get its products built in India for $7.50 a day.
More crucial along those lines: Block American companies and American richerati from hiding money in offshore banking institutions. See the Panama Papers, dear readers, for more on this particular screwing you as taxpayers are receiving.
2. End The Offshoring Act. Establishes tariffs to discourage companies from laying off their workers in order to relocate in other countries and ship their products back to the U.S. tax-free.
That might be good. Sounds a little like closing the barn door after the horse has escaped. But what…is this saying you intend to end a law that discourages corporations from moving jobs offshore?
3. American Energy & Infrastructure Act. Leverages public-private partnerships, and private investments through tax incentives, to spur $1 trillion in infrastructure investment over 10 years. It is revenue neutral.
I could probably go along with this, if I knew some more about it. But it sounds like it could limit American options where potential damage to the environment could occur, and further enrich already vast corporations.
4. School Choice And Education Opportunity Act. Redirects education dollars to give parents the right to send their kid to the public, private, charter, magnet, religious or home school of their choice. Ends common core, brings education supervision to local communities. It expands vocational and technical education, and make 2 and 4-year college more affordable.
Sounds good. Common Core is widely hated. Yet our schools are so poor, there does need to be some accountability. And some guidelines and consensus as to what kids should master. How do you propose to ensure those things?
5. Repeal and Replace Obamacare Act. Fully repeals Obamacare and replaces it with Health Savings Accounts, the ability to purchase health insurance across state lines, and lets states manage Medicaid funds. Reforms will also include cutting the red tape at the FDA: there are over 4,000 drugs awaiting approval, and we especially want to speed the approval of life-saving medications.
Obamacare indeed has been a fiasco for large numbers of Americans. It needs to be fixed, if not replaced. But…you know…an HSA health insurance does not make. I’ve had an HSA and found it a poor substitute for a decent health insurance policy. It appears that allowing people to buy insurance across state lines may indeed improve competitiveness and allow consumers more choice.
Hamstringing the FDA is as stupid as it gets, proves you are an ignoramus, sir, and once again suggests you should go back to school before you take on the Presidency of the United States.
6. Affordable Childcare and Eldercare Act. Allows Americans to deduct childcare and elder care from their taxes, incentivizes employers to provide on-side childcare services, and creates tax-free Dependent Care Savings Accounts for both young and elderly dependents, with matching contributions for low-income families.
Sounds grand! How exactly are we going to swing this after we’ve cut everybody’s taxes as dramatically as you propose?
7. End Illegal Immigration Act Fully-funds the construction of a wall on our southern border with the full understanding that the country Mexico will be reimbursing the United States for the full cost of such wall; establishes a 2-year mandatory minimum federal prison sentence for illegally re-entering the U.S. after a previous deportation, and a 5-year mandatory minimum for illegally re-entering for those with felony convictions, multiple misdemeanor convictions or two or more prior deportations; also reforms visa rules to enhance penalties for overstaying and to ensure open jobs are offered to American workers first.
This is, bar none, the stupidest of the Trump proposals. If it didn’t ape the Berlin Wall, it would still be stupid for the environmental devastation it will wreak. Dumbest damnfool thing any of us has ever heard. Clearly the product of a man who has never even seen the border between the U.S. and Mexico.
8. Restoring Community Safety Act. Reduces surging crime, drugs and violence by creating a Task Force On Violent Crime and increasing funding for programs that train and assist local police; increases resources for federal law enforcement agencies and federal prosecutors to dismantle criminal gangs and put violent offenders behind bars.
Uhm…you do know violent crime has dropped to record lows, don’t you? And you do know we already incarcerate a larger portion of our population than just about any other country in the world, right? What do you propose to do: lock everybody up?
9. Restoring National Security Act. Rebuilds our military by eliminating the defense sequester and expanding military investment; provides Veterans with the ability to receive public VA treatment or attend the private doctor of their choice; protects our vital infrastructure from cyber-attack; establishes new screening procedures for immigration to ensure those who are admitted to our country support our people and our values
Yeah, I could get on board with this, too.
10. Clean up Corruption in Washington Act. Enacts new ethics reforms to Drain the Swamp and reduce the corrupting influence of special interests on our politics.
Pure, unmitigated demagoguery. Gimme a break. You wouldn’t know how to reduce special interests if a lobbyist bit you on the arse…sir.
And if we follow these steps, we will once more have a government of, by and for the people.
Which people, specifically? And what about the rest of us?
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