Has Trump kept his promises for the first 100 days of his administration?
In October, during his campaign for the White House, President Donald Trump presented his “100-Day Plan To Make America Great Again” in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. In it, he promised to “work with Congress to introduce the following broader legislative measures and fight for their passage within the first 100 days of my Administration.”
Those ten measures were:
- Middle Class Tax Relief And Simplification Act
- End The Offshoring Act
- American Energy & Infrastructure Act
- School Choice And Education Opportunity Act
- Repeal and Replace Obamacare Act
- Affordable Childcare and Eldercare Act
- End Illegal Immigration Act
- Restoring Community Safety Act
- Restoring National Security Act
- Clean up Corruption in Washington Act
For his part, Mr. Trump told the Associated Press last week that he shouldn’t necessarily be held accountable on these promises “because much of the foundation’s been laid.”
“Things came up,” Mr. Trump said. “I’ll give you an example. I didn’t put Supreme Court judge on the 100 (day) plan, and I got a Supreme Court judge.”
With his 100th day in office coming up on April 29th, here’s a look at how he’s doing on the ambitious list so far.
Middle Class Tax Relief And Simplification Act:
Overhauling the tax code has been at the top of Mr. Trump’s presidential to-do list since he began campaigning. The act, as described by Mr. Trump in his proposal, promises to reduce taxes on middle class families, simplify the number of tax brackets from seven to three and lower business rates.
On Friday, he promised to unveil a “massive tax cut” in a “big announcement” coming this Wednesday.
Originally, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin had set goals for major tax reforms to pass by August, describing the plan as “an ambitious timeline” that may “slip to later in the year.”
In addition to an already tight timeline getting pushed up four months, failure to pass a bill repealing the Obama-era Affordable Care Act last month deprived GOP lawmakers of roughly $1 trillion in tax cuts, and left significantly less room for movement in re-writing other areas of the tax code.
There is also concern about releasing a bill reforming taxes without full knowledge of Mr. Trump’s own tax returns. In this way, major reforms to real estate and business taxes may present conflicts of interest for Mr. Trump and his family.
Mr. Trump’s proposal also promised to create “at least 25 million new jobs through massive tax reduction and simplification.”
The unemployment rate when Mr. Trump took office in January was 4.8 percent, which has gone down as of March to 4.5 percent. For the two full months Mr. Trump has been in office, the U.S. economy added 219,000 jobs in February and 98,000 in March. Although there is no apparent deadline on the promised 25 million jobs, this amounts only .013 percent of Trump’s ultimate goal so far.
End The Offshoring Act:
This act would establish “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.”
Since taking office, Mr. Trump has promised “advantages” to companies who elect to make their products in the United States, proposed high tariffs for goods made outside of the country and pledged to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).
This has caused a lot of concern from manufacturers and lawmakers, who are worried about entering into potential trade wars with other nations.
But outside of publicly celebrating products stamped “Made in America,” Mr. Trump has yet to act on any of these promises.
American Energy & Infrastructure Act:
Mr. Trump promised to revitalize American infrastructure, which would help rebuild cracked roads and crumbling bridges, but come at a hefty cost. Specifically, $1 trillion in taxpayer money to be invested in over the course of 10 years.
The plan “leverages public-private partnerships, and private investments through tax incentives.” However, an infrastructure plan like this has not yet been executed.
Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, along with National Trade Council chief Peter Navarro, suggested allocating $137 billion in tax credits for private investors working on infrastructure projects, which, by their estimates, would spur the proposed $1 trillion in investments over the next ten years.
While the proposal is clear, it raises many concerns about investing public dollars in private institutions.
Mr. Trump has yet to act on the Ross-Navarro plan.
School Choice And Education Opportunity Act:
School choice gives parents more freedom to elect education options outside of the public sphere -- including private education, homeschooling and religious school among other alternatives -- by redirecting taxes paid toward public education as vouchers.
Mr. Trump’s pick for Secretary of Education, Betsy DeVos, who was confirmed this February, is a major advocate for school choice and has used her vast wealth as heir to the Amway marketing fortune to fund charter school efforts in Michigan.
“If a school is troubled, or unsafe, or not a good fit for a child - perhaps they have a special need that is going unmet - we should support a parent’s right to enroll their child in a high-quality alternative,” Ms. DeVos said to the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee.
However, Secretaries of Education have limited power when it comes to K-12 public education, which is still a largely local issue. Additionally, there has been no major legislative action since Mr. Trump took office concerning education reform.
Repeal and Replace Obamacare Act:
Last month, the American Health Care Act (AHCA) failed to receive a sufficient number of votes for passage in the House, postponing the vote on the Republican-proposed bill.
White House officials and House Republicans failed to drum up enough support within their own party to pass the bill, which attempts to repeal and modify the Affordable Care Act. The bill’s opponents argued that it was an insufficient replacement for Obamacare.
At a press conference on Thursday, Mr. Trump said he hoped for a quick turnaround on a spending bill to avoid government shutdown and health care reform.
“I want to get both,” Mr. Trump said in reference to bringing both of these items to a vote this week.
After the bill’s defeat in the House, Republican lawmakers are scrambling to refine and compromise on language within the bill. Even if the bill’s edits are complete by the end of the week, it would take another week the give the House time to consider the legislation, putting it past Trump’s 100 day mark to repeal and replace Obamacare.
Affordable Childcare and Eldercare Act:
While Mr. Trump revealed plans to make childcare and eldercare more affordable and accessible on the campaign trail, no apparent efforts have been made on this front by either the Trump administration of the GOP-controlled Congress thus far.
End Illegal Immigration Act:
Perhaps the signature promise of the Trump campaign, the act in theory “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” while toughening punishments for illegal immigrants.
While Mr. Trump has insisted that Mexico will pay for the border wall, which is estimated by some to cost $21.6 billion, the White House has also advocated for a 20 percent tax on products and services imported from Mexico.
“Right now our country’s policy is to tax exports and let imports flow freely in, which is ridiculous,” White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer said in January. “If you tax that $50 billion at 20 percent of imports -- which is by the way a practice that 160 other countries do...By doing that, we can do $10 billion a year and easily pay for the wall just through that mechanism alone. That’s really going to provide the funding.”
Construction on the wall has not yet commenced. In an interview last week with the Associated Press, Mr. Trump declined to comment on whether he would sign a government funding bill in the coming week if it offers no money for the wall.
Restoring National Security Act:
In Mr. Trump’s first federal budget proposal, he called to greatly increase military spending, which is consistent with his 100-days list of goals.
His proposal asks Congress for a $54 billion increase in defense spending, which would be funded by cuts to domestic programs. The proposed budget is still awaiting congressional approval.
The act also calls for “screening procedures for immigration to ensure those who are admitted to our country support our people and our values.” This came to fruition in the form of Trump’s first-draft federal travel ban on seven majority-Muslim nations, which was put on hold by federal judges. The White House then introduced another version of the travel ban, which was again put on hold by federal judges.
Clean up Corruption in Washington Act:
Thus far, there have not been any specific legislative attempts to introduce ethics reforms and “drain the swamp,” one of Mr. Trump’s most repeated promises on the campaign trail.
