New Yearâs Update for Trump Voters
Almost one year in, itâs time for another update for Trump voters on his election promises:
1. He told you heâd 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 â 53 percent â will pay more in taxes. As Trump told his wealthy friends at Mar-a-Lago just days after the tax bill became law, âYou all just got a lot richer.â
2. He promised to close âspecial interest loopholes that have been so good for Wall Street investors but unfair to American workers,â especially the notorious âcarried interestâ loophole for private-equity, hedge fund, and real estate partners. You bought it. But the new tax law keeps the âcarried interestâ loophole.
3. He told you heâd repeal Obamacare and replace it with something âbeautiful.â You bought it. But he didnât repeal and he didnât replace. (Just as well: His plan would have knocked at least 23 million off health insurance, including many of you.) Instead, heâs 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 heâd invest $1 trillion in our nationâ crumbling infrastructure. You bought it. But after his giant tax cut for corporations and millionaires, thereâs no money left for infrastructure.
5. He said heâd clean the Washington swamp. You bought it. But heâs 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 heâs 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 heâd 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 whoâs in charge of what.
7. He told you heâd âbring down drug pricesâ by making deals with drug companies. You bought it. But now the White House says that promise is âinoperative.â
8. He promised âa complete ban on foreign lobbyists raising money for American elections.â You bought it. But foreign lobbyists are still raising money for American elections.
9. He told you âIâm not going to cut Social Security like every other Republican and Iâm not going to cut Medicare or Medicaid.â 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 âsix weeks of paid maternity leave to any mother with a newborn child whose employer does not provide the benefit.â You bought it. But the giant tax cut for corporations and the rich doesnât leave any money for this.
11. He said that on Day One heâd label China a âcurrency manipulator.â You bought it. But then he met with Chinaâs president Xi Jinping and declared âChina is not a currency manipulator.â Ever since then, Trump has been cozying up to Xi.
12. He said he wouldnât bomb Syria. You bought it. But then he bombed Syria.
13. He said heâd build a âwallâ across the southern border. You believed him. But thereâs no money for that, either. Chief of staff John Kelly says it is âunlikely that we will build a wall, a physical barrier, from sea to shining sea.â
14. He promised that the many women who accused him of sexual misconduct âwill be sued after the election is over.â You bought it. He hasnât sued them, presumably because he doesnât want the truth to come out.Â
15. He said he would not be a president who took vacations. âI would not be a president that takes time off,â he promised, and he called Barack Obama âthe vacationer-in-Chief.â 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. Thatâs 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 heâd force companies to keep jobs in America, and that there would be âconsequencesâ 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 Trumpâs 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 âconsequencesâ for sending all these jobs overseas.
17. He promised to revive the struggling coal industry and âbring back thousandsâ of lost mining jobs. You bought it. But coal jobs continue to disappear. Since Trumpâs victory, at least 6 plants that relied on coal have closed or announced they will close. Another 40 are projected to close during the presidentâs four-year term. Utilities continue to switch to natural gas instead of coal.
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. For example, ArcelorMittal just announced it will soon lay off 150 of its 207 steel workers at its plant in Conshohocken, Pennsylvania.
19. He said heâd 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.
20. He said heâd release his taxes. âIâm under a routine audit and itâll be released, and as soon as the audit is finished it will be released,â he promised during the campaign. He hasnât released his taxes.
