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What Has Donald Trump Done For America

Federal Budget Shutdown Of 20182019

Has Donald Trump made America great again? Looking back at his presidency

On December 22, 2018, the federal government went into a partial shutdown caused by the expiration of funding for nine executive departments. The lapse in funding occurred after Trump demanded that the appropriations bill include funding for a U.S.-Mexico border wall. The shutdown ended on January 25, 2019, with the total shutdown period extending over a month, the longest in American history. By mid-January 2019, the White House Council of Economic Advisors estimated that each week of the shutdown reduced GDP growth by 0.1 percentage points, the equivalent of 1.2 points per quarter. About 380,000 federal employees were furloughed, some public services were shut down, and an additional 420,000 employees for the affected agencies were expected to work with their pay delayed until the end of the shutdown, totaling 800,000 workers affected out of 2.1 million civilian non-postal federal employees.

A January 2019 Congressional Budget Office report estimated that the 35-day partial government shutdown cost the American economy at least $11 billion, including $3 billion in permanent losses the CBO estimate excluded indirect costs that were difficult to quantify. The shutdown had an adverse effect on the budgets of state and local governments, as states covered some federal services during the shutdown.

Failure: Replacing The Affordable Care Act

The late GOP Sen. John McCains iconic thumbs-down vote denied Trump a full congressional repeal of former President Barack Obamas signature healthcare law.

But Trump did have success in dismantling parts of the law. His tax bill included a rollback of the tax penalty for those who did not enroll in healthcare.

Trump never offered a replacement for the Affordable Care Act. As a candidate Trump promised insurance for everybody and a more immediate replacement to the nearly decade-old ACA. But he didnt deliver on that as president.

Consequences If Aca Repealed

President Trump and Republicans in Congress tried repeatedly to repeal or replace the ACA, without success. In February 2018, 20 states, led by Texas Attorney GeneralKen Paxton and Wisconsin Attorney GeneralBrad Schimel, filed a lawsuit against the federal government alleging the ACA is now unconstitutional because the individual mandate tax which NFIB v. Sebelius rested on was repealed by the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017.

Writing in the Washington Post in September 2020, Catherine Rampell summarized some of the adverse consequences if the ACA is overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court:

  • 50+ million non-elderly adults with pre-existing conditions could be declined health insurance, or be charged more by insurance companies
  • 12+ million low-income persons would become ineligible for Medicaid, thereby losing insurance
  • 9+ million persons receiving tax credits to reduce insurance premiums on the exchanges would either pay more or lose coverage
  • Minimum essential coverage for prescription benefits and substance abuse treatment would no longer be required in insurance policies
  • Children would no longer be able to stay on their parentsâ plans until age 26
  • Preventive care would again involve cost-sharing
  • More Americans would have healthcare plans without comprehensive protection
  • Insurance companies would again be able to impose lifetime limits.

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When He Lied About His Inauguration Crowd Sizes

Ready to fire Trump and make inauguration crowds great again.

It’s a fair day to IMEACH

Size matters to Trump which is why he and his team practiced their very first professional gaslighting by insisting that the crowds gathered for his inauguration were the largest ever, despite extensive photographic evidence to the contrary.

Later it emerged a government photographer had even edited photos to make crowds appear bigger, according to a Guardian investigation.

Trump Opened A Complaint Platform To Report Censorship On Facebook Twitter And Youtube

Garish Tastes, Awful Hair: Donald Trump Is America

The Trump administration launched a website in May asking for examples of Americans being censored on social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

At the time, the form asked users to submit their name, phone number and whether they are a U.S. citizen, USA TODAY reported. Then it asked for incidents of censorship.

“SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS should advance FREEDOM OF SPEECH. Yet too many Americans have seen their accounts suspended, banned, or fraudulently reported for unclear ‘violations’ of user policies,” the White House website reads.

The website says it is no longer accepting new responses.

Our rating: True

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Stock Market Has Reached Record Highs

The highest closing record of the Dow Jones industrial average, the index of 30 top U.S. companies, was reached in February, after investors appeared to be encouraged that the trade wars initiated by Mr. Trump were being resolved. Recent interest-rate cuts in 2019 also contributed. This March, the Dow fell a record 2,013.76 points to 23,851.02, after it became clear that the U.S. economy would lock down because of the pandemic. That drop was followed by two more record-setting point drops.

Signed Welfare Reform Requiring Able

The Trump administration released guidance in January 2018 that lets states take away Medicaid coverage from people who arent working or engaged in work-related activities. Tens of thousands of people have been affected. For instance, in Arkansas over 18,000 Medicaid beneficiaries lost coverage in 2018, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

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Democracy And Government Reform

  • Imperiled American voters with untrue claims about illegal voting. President Trumps empty claims of widespread fraud undermine the integrity of our elections and lay the basis for voter suppression efforts that attack our constitutional right to participate in self-government. When government officials spread lies that call into question the legitimacy of our elections, people lose faith in the democratic process. Instead of responding to the clear and present dangers of foreign interference and discriminatory efforts to keep some American citizens from casting their ballots, Trump chooses to spread baseless slander while calling for a witch hunt against American voters.
  • Brought pay-to-play corruption to the presidency. The Trump family continues to promote their private business interests at home and abroad while profiting off of the presidency. Corruption, or even the appearance of corruption, diminishes trust in government and increases cynicism toward democratic institutions. At a time when 75 percent of Americans already believe that corruption is widespread in government, President Trumps blatant disregard for ethics rules and constitutional prohibitions on presidential enrichment further undermine democratic norms and threatens our democracy, economy, and national security.
  • Restoring American Leadership Abroad

    ‘Do you regret your lies?’: Reporter asks Donald Trump watch his response

    Restored Americas leadership in the world and successfully negotiated to ensure our allies pay their fair share for our military protection.

    • Secured a $400 billion increase in defense spending from NATO allies by 2024, and the number of members meeting their minimum obligations more than doubled.
    • Worked to reform and streamline the United Nations and reduced spending by $1.3 billion.
    • Allies, including Japan and the Republic of Korea, committed to increase burden-sharing.
    • Protected our Second Amendment rights by announcing the United States will never ratify the UN Arms Trade Treaty.
    • Returned 56 hostages and detainees from more than 24 countries.
    • Worked to advance a free and open Indo-Pacific region, promoting new investments and expanding American partnerships.

    Advanced peace through strength.

    Renewed our cherished friendship and alliance with Israel and took historic action to promote peace in the Middle East.

    Stood up against Communism and Socialism in the Western Hemisphere.

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    The Economy Remains In A Massive Hole

    Seven months into the crisis, COVID-19 and the Trump Administrations failure to control it continue to constrain the recovery. While the economy, with the help of the CARES Act, has made critical progress since Spring 2020, output and employment are still extremely depressed relative to their levels before the pandemic. And with labor market gains slowing and economic hardship on the rise, a brutally uneven and needlessly slow recovery will be all but guaranteed unless more fiscal support is delivered immediately.

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    Upending The Trade Debate

    President Donald Trumps approach to trade weakened key alliances, destroyed jobs and damaged the U.S. economy. It was as if he had used a sledgehammer for heart surgery. But Trump also changed the debate about nonmarket behavior like state subsidies and that was long overdue.

    Advanced economies have experienced massive surges in imports from low-wage countries in the past half-century. This is partly a natural result of nations integrating into the global economy under the relative peace maintained by American military might. Export-led growth helped eradicate poverty. But U.S. manufacturers became an open target, some argue, with cheap rival imports overwhelming aging marquee American industries.

    Developing nations like China, India and Indonesia created a latecomers quandary for advanced economies. They entered the global trading system after the United States and its allies drastically lowered tariffs on manufactured goods for all members of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade and its successor, the World Trade Organization. This left rich countries with little leverage to entice newer members to let go of the production subsidies they still view as key to their miraculous rise from poverty.

    No one has had a good solution. Some allies quietly let the problem slide. Trumps trade war made that impossible.

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    When He Appointed Jeff Sessions Attorney General

    breaking: trump has accidentally given jeff sessions an old sock and he is now free to leave the premises

    christina

    Donald Trump might be slamming Jeff Sessions now but when he appointed him his first official attorney general, he seemed like a big fan.

    Which was despite large protests against giving Sessions the role, thanks to his past record, which included opposition to LGBTQ rights and protecting voting rights for marginalised groups.

    While in office, Sessions immediately began undercutting federal rights for LGBTQ people, especially trans individuals.

    Did Trump care, before or after? Absolutely not.

    Proposing Draconian Cuts To Rural Investments

    6 of the weirdest things Donald Trump has done since becoming president

    Almost immediately after Trump took office, the administration began enacting an agenda to systematically defund essential rural services and programs. The White Houses proposed USDA budget for 2018, for example, cut $4.7 billion dollars from the agency.18 These cuts would be achieved, in part, by eliminating critical rural investmentssuch as loans to local governments for infrastructure and programs to support rural businessesas well as drastically cutting funding for broadband grants and the Single Family Housing Direct Loans program, which helps low-income rural Americans finance the purchase of a home.19 Shockingly, the proposed budget would also shutter the Appalachian Regional Commissiona long-standing economic development institution serving one of the most distressed areas in the country.20

    Trump has remained consistent on rural development funding. His proposed 2021 budget practically eliminated the Rural Business Cooperative Service, the program charged with promoting job creation and locally owned establishments, through a whopping 97 percent funding cut.21 Even programs for small farmers were not safe.22 The proposed budget offered a measly $2 millionone-fifth of the total sum authorized in the 2018 Farm Billto a program connecting farmers and ranchers to mental health services. While most of the draconian proposed cuts never became law, they nonetheless endangered crucial rural programs by creating uncertainty around their future funding.

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    Tried To Launch A ‘voter Fraud Hotline’ That Was Flooded By Prank Calls

    After he lost the election to Joe Biden, Trump did everything in his power to try and overturn the results. One of his efforts included launching a ‘voter fraud hotline’ where Trump supporters could call in and report anything suspicious they had seen at polling stations. This didn’t result in any substantial evidence being brought forward but did see it inundated with some very funny prank calls.

    I…may just do this all night https://t.co/OFtKDeMBqE Alex Hirsch 1604718450

    Trade War ‘disaster’ With China

    Trade policy is where the president wields the most economic power, as Congress has over the years delegated negotiating authority to the presidents office, according to Menzie Chinn, professor of public affairs and economics at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Chinn documented the trade war saga on his macroeconomic policy blog Econbrowser.

    Trump exercised this power almost immediately during his first years in office and even went so far as to use national security as a basis for trade barriers with China — something that no president has done in recent times.

    Ultimately, the tit-for-tat trade war that Trump waged with China was lost by the U.S., economists say, and data on trade deficits confirm.

    Trumps dramatic trade war upended decades of policy, and kicked off with failed meetings with Chinese leaders in 2017. After the talks disintegrated, Trump initiated the trade war by imposing tariffs on all imported washing machines and solar panels in early 2018. He then announced 25% tariffs on steel imports and 10% tariffs on aluminum. China retaliated with tariffs of up to 25% on more than 100 U.S. products including soybeans and airplanes. The sporadic, retaliatory trade-off battles waged on for years, and dragged other countries that were trying to remain competitive in as well.

    By the end of his term, the trade deficit will be larger in absolute terms than it was when he came to office, Chinn told ABC News.

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    As A Result Of The Republican Tax Bill Small Businesses Will Have The Lowest Top Marginal Tax Rate In More Than 80 Years

    Not really.According to the Tax Foundation, the lowest top marginal rate in the past 80 years was 28 percent in the 1980s, although a claw back provision in the 1980s increased the top marginal rate to 33 percent for taxpayers with incomes over certain thresholds. Under current law, the top marginal rate is 37 percent, but pass-through businesses can receive additional tax breaks to lower their top marginal rate to 29.6 percent.

    After Being Hit Hard By Covid Portugal Now Has Highest Vaccination Rate

    âGrovellingâ United States is âbrought to its kneesâ: Donald Trump

    Donald Trump once pledged that, if elected president, he would put America first and spend no time at all worried about what the rest of the world thought about us. Mission accomplished!

    drasticallyabundantlyThe Point: Weve never been in this place before in the modern presidency and the post-World War II world. Its yet another line Trump has not just crossed, but obliterated.

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    Failure: Family Separations And The Deaths Of Migrant Children

    Trump in 2016 campaigned on reducing undocumented immigration, pledging to take a hardline approach.

    He made good on that promise when coming into office, but was accused of human-rights abuses and violating international law by the UN.

    The Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” policy on illegal border crossings led to the separations of at least 5,500 families and saw children placed in cages.

    The president of the American Academy of Pediatrics at the time described the practice as “nothing less than government-sanctioned child abuse.”

    After widespread backlash, Trump issued an executive order in June 2018 to halt the family separations, and a federal judge ordered the Trump administration to reunite all those it had separated. But the fallout from the separations is ongoing.

    Trump falsely blamed his predecessor, former President Barack Obama, for the policy that saw thousands of children separated from their parents.

    At least six migrant children died in US custody, leading to widespread condemnation of conditions in detention facilities.

    The UN human-rights chief, Michelle Bachelet, in July 2019 said she was “shocked” by the US government’s treatment of migrant children and the conditions they faced in detention facilities after crossing the border from Mexico.

    What Has Trump Done For The Economy

    Trump has repeated many times that he has supervised the greatest economy ever, according to The Los Angeles Times.

    However, the Times reports that the economy has performed roughly on the same level it performed for Barack Obama during the last three years of his tenure.

    The economy added 6.6 million jobs in Trumps first three years, compared to 8.1million in the last three years under Obama, according to the newspaper.

    The countrys unemployment rate under Trump fell to an impressive 3.5 percent before the devastating coronavirus pandemic struck.

    Thats the lowest mark in 50 years.

    In April 2020 it was close to 15 percent but has steadily fallen, and in September stood at 7.9 percent.

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    Failure: Iran Syria And Afghanistan

    Trump’s decision to unilaterally withdraw the US from the 2015 nuclear deal in May 2018 has induced chaos throughout the Middle East.

    It remains one of Trump’s most unpopular decisions in the global arena, and has been condemned by top US allies who were also signatories to the deal.

    The former president failed to thwart Iran’s aggressive behavior in the region through a maximum pressure campaign, meant to squeeze Tehran into negotiating a more stringent version of the pact.

    After a series of incidents in the Persian Gulf region in 2019, tensions between Washington and Tehran reached historic heights and sparked fears of war. These fears were exacerbated after Trump ordered a strike that killed Iran’s top general, Qassem Soleimani, in early January 2020. The strike led Iran to retaliate and fire on US troops in the region, and dozens were seriously injured.

    Iran also abandoned the 2015 nuclear deal, which was designed to prevent it from obtaining a nuclear weapon.

    Trump’s decision to pull US troops out of northern Syria in October 2019 was also among his most disastrous foreign policy moves. In doing so, Trump effectively abandoned US-allied Kurdish forces who bore the brunt of the US-led campaign against ISIS to a Turkish military invasion.

    The withdrawal induced a humanitarian crisis and created a security vacuum that Russia, Iran, and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, an accused war criminal, all benefited from.

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