One
Year in, and he’s Broken 20 Big Promises He Made to You
To watch this video on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DHG7appJ6Io
1. He told you he’d cut your taxes, and that the super-rich like him would pay more. You bought it. But his new tax law does the opposite. By 2027, according to the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center, the richest 1 percent will have got 83 percent of the tax cut and the richest 0.1 percent, 60 percent of it. But more than half of all Americans — 53 percent — will pay more in taxes. As Trump told his wealthy friends at Mar-a-Lago just days after the tax bill became law, “You all just got a lot richer.”
2.
He promised to close “special interest loopholes that have
been so good for Wall Street investors but unfair to American workers,” especially
the notorious “carried interest” loophole for private-equity, hedge fund, and
real estate partners. You bought it. But the new tax law keeps the “carried
interest” loophole.
3. 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 Americans off health insurance, including many of you.) Instead, he’s doing what he can to cut it back and replace it with nothing. The new tax law will result in 13 million people losing health coverage, according to the Congressional Budget Office.
4.
He told you he’d invest $1 trillion in our nation’s crumbling infrastructure. You bought
it. But after his giant tax cut for corporations and millionaires, there’s no
money left for infrastructure.
5.
He said he’d drain 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.
6.
He said he’d use his business experience to whip the White House into
shape. You
bought it. But he has created the most 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 people there barely
know who’s in charge of what.
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 told you he’d “stop foreign lobbyists from raising money for American
elections.” You
bought it. But foreign lobbyists are still raising money for American
elections.
9.
He told you “I’m not going to cut Social Security like every other Republican
and I’m not going to cut Medicare or Medicaid.” You bought
it. But he and House Speaker Paul Ryan are already planning such cuts in order
to deal with the ballooning deficit created, in part, by the new tax law for
corporations and the rich.
10.
He promised “six weeks of paid maternity leave to any mother with a newborn
child whose employer does not provide the benefit.” You bought
it. But the giant tax cut for corporations and the rich doesn’t leave any money
for this.
11.
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.
12.
He said he “won’t bomb Syria.” You bought it. Then he bombed
Syria.
13.
He said he’d build a “wall” across the southern border. You
believed him. But chief of staff John Kelly says it is “unlikely that we will
build a wall, a physical barrier, from sea to shining sea.”
14.
He promised that the many women who accused him of sexual misconduct “will be
sued after the election is over.” You bought it. He hasn’t sued them,
presumably because he doesn’t want the truth to come out.
15.
He said he would not be a president who took vacations, and he called Barack
Obama “the vacationer-in-Chief.” You bought it. But since becoming
President 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 over $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.
16.
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)
has 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. 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.
17.
He promised to revive the struggling coal industry and “bring back thousands”
of lost mining jobs. You bought it. But coal jobs continue to disappear.
Since Trump’s victory, at least 6 plants that relied on coal have closed or
announced they will close. Another 40 are projected to close during the
president’s four-year term. Utilities continue to switch to natural gas instead
of coal, and renewable energy is cheaper than ever.
18.
He promised to protect steel workers. But according to the American Iron
and Steel Institute, which tracks shipments, steel imports were 19.4 percent
higher in the first 10 months of 2017 than in the same period last year. That
import surge has hurt American steel workers, who were already struggling
against a glut of cheap Chinese steel.
19.
He said he’d make America safer. You believed him. But according to Mass
Shooting Tracker, there have been 377 mass shootings so far in the Trump
administration, 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 control legislation.
20.
He said he’d release his taxes. “I’m under a routine audit and
it’ll be released, and as soon as the audit is finished it will be released,“
he promised during the campaign. He hasn’t released his taxes.
Robert B. Reich is Chancellor's Professor of Public Policy at the University of California at Berkeley and Senior Fellow at the Blum Center for Developing Economies. He served as Secretary of Labor in the Clinton administration, for which Time Magazine named him one of the ten most effective cabinet secretaries of the twentieth century. He has written fourteen books, including the best sellers "Aftershock", "The Work of Nations," and "Beyond Outrage," and, his most recent, "Saving Capitalism." He is also a founding editor of the American Prospect magazine, chairman of Common Cause, a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and co-creator of the award-winning documentary, "Inequality For All." His latest documentary, "Saving Capitalism," is streaming now on Netflix.
