Donald Trump issued his own Contract with America, entitled "Contract with the American Voter", wherein he states (from
Breitbart):
“On November Eighth, Americans will be voting for this 100-day plan to restore prosperity to our country, secure our communities, and honesty to our government,” Trump says. “This is my pledge to you and if we follow these steps we will once more have a government of, by and for the people and importantly we will make America great again. Believe me.”
While I trust Trump as far as I can throw him (maybe 2 feet with a hurricane force wind behind me?), let's consider what he is promising as though it was offered by someone a bit more trustworthy:
1. Propose a Constitutional Amendment to impose term limits on all members of Congress: Last time I checked, the president doesn't have any authority to propose Constitutional Amendments. Regardless, this was part of Newt Gingrich's original Contract with America. You notice we still don't have term limits?
2. Institute a hiring freeze on all federal employees to reduce federal workforce through attrition (exempting military, public safety, and public health): Now THIS the president can do! Of course, I wonder how long that freeze will stay in place?
3. Require for every new federal regulation, two existing regulations must be eliminated: Long overdue. One problem: What constitutes a "regulation"? I can already see the bureaucrats taking two regulations and combining them into one.
4. Institute a five year-ban on White House and Congressional officials becoming lobbyists after they leave government service: Another good idea. Unfortunately, it doesn't prevent them from taking private sector jobs as payback for favors done while in office.
5. Create a lifetime ban on White House officials lobbying on behalf of a foreign government: See #4 above.
6. Institute a complete ban on foreign lobbyists raising money for American elections: Good luck selling this to the whores in Washington. Also, even if this were done, money can find a way to get where it wants to go.
7. Announce intention to renegotiate NAFTA or withdraw from the deal under Article 2205: NAFTA isn't America's problem, but go for it. But he better make sure Canada and Mexico are willing to renegotiate NAFTA, or else he will be killing economies all across North America. If you think we have too many Mexicans now, wait until Mexico goes into a deep economic recession and see how it goes.
8. Announce withdrawal from the Trans-Pacific Partnership: The icing on the protectionist cake. This won't end well.
9. Direct Secretary of the Treasury to label China a currency manipulator: Because ticking off China will have positive benefits. I can't think of any at the moment...
10. 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: Let's find every country we can offend, and do it! All in pursuit of jobs that no longer exist.
11. 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: Overlooking the fact "clean coal" doesn't exist (it is created by reducing the energy effectiveness of regular coal, thereby requiring more of it to produce the same amount of energy, hence it is pointless), this is the first bright spot in this Contract.
12. Lift the Obama-Clinton roadblocks and allow vital energy infrastructure projects, like the Keystone Pipeline, to move forward: I think #11 above covered this, but ok, if he wants to reiterate it.
13. Cancel billions in payments to U.N. climate change programs and use the money to fix America’s water and environmental infrastructure: I don't know if there are billions to be had, but if so, this is brilliant. I am sure the folks in Flint, Michigan can get behind this.
14. Cancel every unconstitutional executive action, memorandum and order issued by President Obama: No complaints about this.
15. 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: We will see. The last two presidents were very hit-and-miss with their SCOTUS selections. However, I figure Trump can't be worse than Obama.
16. Cancel all federal funding to Sanctuary Cities: Any city or level of government that blatantly ignores federal law should get all federal funding cut, period.
17. 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: Only 2 million? I think he is drastically underestimating the number of illegal immigrants. And yes folks, every single illegal immigrant is a criminal. It is in the definition of "illegal immigrant". One can argue the laws should be changed, but that is another discussion.
18. Suspend immigration from terror-prone regions where vetting cannot safely occur. All vetting of people coming into our country will be considered extreme vetting: If we must have a war on Islam, this is also a must.
19. Work with Congress on a 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: I have learned to despise discussions of tax rates. Very few people or businesses ever pay the top rate in their bracket. Until we eliminate all the deductions and go with a simple flat tax rate, discussing percentages will be pointless.
20. Work with Congress on a 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: Be afraid of this one. It is the first shot in a trade war, which will have unforeseen economic consequences, and could be potentially devastating to economies across the world, including our own.
21. Work with Congress on a 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: This sounds nice, but getting something for nothing rarely happens. He is trying Obama's "Build America" bonds program, which allowed local governments to finance infrastructure projects with backing from the federal government. Remember, if the local government defaults, the feds are on the tab for the balance.
22. Work with Congress on a School Choice And Education Opportunity Act. Redirects education dollars to gives 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: Another bright spot in this list, and long overdue.
23. Work with Congress on a 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: This is another bright spot. HSA's combined with high deductible health insurance is the only solution to our health care mess.
24. Work with Congress on a 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: More deductions? Dependent Care Savings Accounts? We need a complete overhaul of our country's dependent care system. The simple fact woman cannot even consider staying home with their own children without bankrupting the family budget should tell us all we need to know. Complex tax deduction schemes won't solve our problem here. This is doubling down on stupid.
25. Work with Congress on an 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: No Donald, you won't get Mexico to fund this. More protectionist nonsense.
26. Work with Congress on a 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: More insane "war on drugs" crap, that refuses to recognize drugs as a medical problem, not a legal one.
27a. Work with Congress on a 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...: There are several different items here that should be addressed separately. First, we should eliminate the VA entirely and allow veterans to have some form of public healthcare, similar to Medicare/Medicaid.
27b. ...protects our vital infrastructure from cyber-attack: We should be doing this anyway. It is my understanding we already are. This is nothing new he is suggesting.
27c. ...establishes new screening procedures for immigration to ensure those who are admitted to our country support our people and our values: While we should have a minimum standard for immigration, the "support our values" is concerning. What are our values, and who decides it? If implemented properly, this can be a good idea. Implemented wrong, it becomes neatly disguised fascism.
28. Work with Congress on a 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: This is a lovely sentiment, with a huge problem. Working with Congress to fix what's wrong with our government is asking the fox to redesign the hen house to best accommodate foxes. We need a major re-think of how our government operates, and the "inside the box" thinkers in Congress seem like the last place to get anything useful for that.
Overall, I see 4 items which I would love to see implemented. The rest is either impossible, dangerously stupid, or stuff we are already doing, with occasional deck reshuffling. The few good items don't make the rest of the garbage worth my vote.
