In first 100 days, Trump abandons working families: Charles Schumer

During election season, President Trump made many grand, sweeping promises to working families on a host of issues. But as we mark the first 100 days of the Trump presidency, it is important to take stock of what this president has actually delivered on so far.

Unfortunately, it’s not much.

Since taking office, Trump has either failed to fulfill or broken outright many of the campaign promises he made to working Americans — and now they’re paying the price for it.

On the campaign trail, the president ran as a populist against both the Democratic and Republican establishments, pledging, “The American worker will finally have a president who will protect them and fight for them.” He talked like a different kind of Republican who might be willing to reach across the aisle. On issues like infrastructure and trade, we Democrats agreed with much of what he was saying.

But in a complete reversal, Trump has swapped populism for plutocracy, spending the first 100 days governing from the far right on behalf of the powerful corporations and special interests he once stumped against. There are four main areas where his promises have fallen flat now that he’s in office: jobs and the economy, draining the swamp, healthcare and his budget.

Jobs and the Economy

The president ran as a savvy businessman who could create jobs and get the economy growing faster than even most experts predicted. But in 100 days, his party hasn’t introduced one significant piece of job-creating legislation.

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Despite his promises to fix America’s crumbling infrastructure and create millions of good-paying jobs for U.S. workers, we haven’t seen any proposals from the president thus far. Democrats even put out our own trillion-dollar infrastructure plan in January, taking the president’s campaign promises as a sign he might support our proposal. But we haven’t heard a peep from this White House. In fact, all we’ve seen from Trump are multi-billion dollar cuts he’s proposed to vital transportation programs and infrastructure jobs in his 2018 budget.

On another key economic issue — companies shipping U.S. jobs overseas — the president signed an executive order to potentially undo measures that prevent corporate inversions and the outsourcing of American jobs. For all the hype over his “Buy American, Hire American” policy, he’s refused to insist that pipelines and water infrastructure be made with American steel. And while we heard plenty of tough talk from Trump on holding China accountable for its rapacious trade practices, the president has refused to label China a currency manipulator and signaled he’s going to back off on trade enforcement with the Chinese for the near-term.

Draining the Swamp

Trump loved to say he would “drain the swamp” once he got to Washington. But he’s filled his cabinet with billionaires, bankers and people laden with conflicts of interest. He’s also refused to make public the White House visitor logs, while giving out secret waivers that allow lobbyists to work in his administration on the issues they previously lobbied on. Instead of draining the swamp, he’s filling it up to the brim.

Healthcare

The president repeatedly vowed on the campaign trail that he would repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act. He promised to create a better healthcare system with lower costs, insurance for all, with no changes to Medicare whatsoever. But once in office, he broke each of these promises with the rollout of Trumpcare.

Trump’s promise of “insurance for everybody” quickly turned into a CBO report that confirmed 24 million Americans would be without coverage. The president’s promise of insurance that’s “much less expensive and much better” all of a sudden became higher premiums for seniors, more out-of-pocket expenses for the middle class, and massive tax breaks for the wealthy. As for Medicare, his proposal would have slashed the Medicare Trust Fund by $100 billion. 

Budget

Perhaps nothing has encapsulated President Trump’s first 100 days more than his proposed budget. Despite the fact that he called education “the civil rights issue of our time,” his budget would gut vital school programs. Despite his calls for “a new program of national rebuilding,” he’d cut critical infrastructure grants that benefit communities nationwide. And despite saying that “cures to illnesses that have always plagued us are not too much to hope,” he’s proposed slashing essential funding for scientific research at NIH and NSF. The 2018 budget Trump put forth is a dagger to the heart of the middle class, and proof positive that he promises one thing and delivers quite another.

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Trump could have chosen to spend his first 100 days working with Democrats and finding consensus on these issues. Instead, he has abandoned his campaign populism in favor of a hard-right, special interest-driven agenda that’s hurt working families and left him with little to show for his time in office so far. Unable to achieve significant legislation, the president’s achievements consist only of executive orders — something he once derided as an ineffective way to govern — and several bills passed under the Congressional Review Act (CRA), a rarely-invoked piece of legislation that Republicans have used to overturn Obama-era rules. But don’t be fooled, these are not significant accomplishments. Many of these executive orders simply direct federal agencies to “study” issues, and many of the CRAs only benefit powerful special interests.

We Democrats are prepared to work with Trump to help America’s middle class, but he needs to start meeting us halfway. Unless his approach changes, the next 100 days will be just like the first: a series of broken or unfulfilled promises and very few accomplishments for America’s working families.

Sen. Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y., is the Senate minority leader.

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