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The Atlantic
January 18, 2017
All politicians make campaign promises, though few made them with the abandon, spontaneity, and flamboyance as Donald Trump.
During the campaign, he would casually guarantee vast and circumstantial shifts in policy, often saying he would do them on day one.
These ranged from the monumental - the famous wall Trump vowed to build on the U.S. border with Mexico, with Mexican funds - to the vague (what does it mean to drain the swamp, exactly?)..to the highly concrete, like his outlined expansion of the U.S. military.
In this jaded age, it's customary to assume that campaign promises are just that and won't be remembered.
But studies have found that most politicians do in fact keep most of the promises they make to voters while running for office.
Will Trump follow through on his array of guarantees?
Or will a president who developed a record of dishonesty in private life.. fall short of his promises as president?
We've assembled a list of some of Trump's most notable and circumstantial promises here.
The list is not comprehensive, but it touches on most of his biggest priorities.
(From the article, under the heading "Domestic Policy"
PRESERVE SOCIAL SECURITY, MEDICARE and MEDICAID
PROMISE:
Trump said repeatedly that he would preserve Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.
"I'm not going to cut Social Security like every other Republican and I'm not going to cut Medicare or Medicaid," he told The Daily Signal in May 2015.
"Every other Republican is going to cut, and even if they wouldn't, they don't know what to do because they don't know where the money is..I do."
In March, 2016 he said: "They want to cut Social Security, which I'm not cutting...I'm the only one that's not cutting it."
However, he has also called for converting Medicaid into block grants to states, which can then handle the money as they see fit.
He has seldom spoken about Medicare.
OUTLOOK
This is an area where there could be serious tension between Trump and Republicans in Congress.
They should find common ground on block-granting Medicaid, but many of them also want to cut Medicaid funding, convert Medicare into a voucher system, and privatize Social Security.
That could conflict with Trump supporters who were adamant that he would help them keep entitlements.
Read entire article:
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/01/trump-promises-cheat-sheet/507347/
True Dough
(17,320 posts)20% of these promises are kept. We're surely going to be better off for the many broken promises, but he's not a man of his word most often.
rock
(13,218 posts)Apparently it means what most people mean by "To stock the swamp!"
Wounded Bear
(58,706 posts)He was on all sides of most issues the whole campaign. Which statements do we take seriously to track?