Welcome to DU!
The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards.
Join the community:
Create a free account
Support DU (and get rid of ads!):
Become a Star Member
Latest Breaking News
General Discussion
The DU Lounge
All Forums
Issue Forums
Culture Forums
Alliance Forums
Region Forums
Support Forums
Help & Search
General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region Forums"Salesman-in-chief"-- excellent write-up by Michael Grunwald
http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/03/donald-trump-salesman-214845President Donald Trump basically told Americans last night that hes going to make sure we can have our cake and eat it, tooand by the way it will be a spectacular cake, it wont cost much, and its going to help us lose a lot of weight.
Trump used his first speech to Congress last night to lay out a heroic vision of an America where every problem can be solved. He promised to ensure clean air and water while getting rid of environmental regulations. He vowed to ratchet down taxes on corporations and the middle class while jacking up spending on the military, immigration enforcement, infrastructure and veteransand at the same time somehow rescuing America from its crushing national debt. He suggests that he'll increase tariffs on foreign goods, and that foreign countries would respond by lowering tariffs on U.S. goods. And he pledged to replace Obamacare with terrific reforms that expand choice, increase access, lower costs, and provide better health care. He didnt explain in much detail how those reforms would work, or whether they would also do something about those embarrassingly skimpy gowns patients have to wear in the hospital.
The media takeaway was that Trumps speech sounded optimistic, which was true compared to his dyspeptic inaugural address, and also true in the sense that infomercials promising baldness cures or eight-minute abs are optimistic. But theres a fine line between optimism and magical realism. Politicians routinely deploy sunny rhetoric about cures to illnesses that have always plagued us and American footprints on distant worlds, but Trump was playing a high-risk game by promising just about everything to just about everyoneespecially when he also declared that above all else, we will keep our promises to the American people.
In the real world, policy choices have tradeoffs. For example, Trump vowed to kill Obamacares individual mandate, but he also complained that insurers are abandoning the Obamacare exchangesa problem that would only intensify if the mandate went away, and young and healthy consumers werent required to buy insurance. He suggested he could fix the problem by lowering the overall cost of health care, but in fact Obamacare has already helped bring health care inflation down to its lowest level in half a century. As for the big goal of "repeal and replace"? He handed that ball to Congress, where some Republicans want to eliminate many of the subsidies that have helped Obamacare cover 20 million additional Americans as well as the new taxes on the wealthy that helped pay for it, and other Republicans hope to preserve some of Obamacares benefits for the working poor. Its not clear how theyll pass anything, much less how they could pass - or even think up - a cost-cutting, tax-cutting, coverage-expanding, care-improving plan that squared Trumps various circles.
Though I think con-artist-in-chief would be more appropriate...
InfoView thread info, including edit history
TrashPut this thread in your Trash Can (My DU » Trash Can)
BookmarkAdd this thread to your Bookmarks (My DU » Bookmarks)
0 replies, 1199 views
ShareGet links to this post and/or share on social media
AlertAlert this post for a rule violation
PowersThere are no powers you can use on this post
EditCannot edit other people's posts
ReplyReply to this post
EditCannot edit other people's posts
Rec (2)
ReplyReply to this post