Back to Fort Fairfield Journal      WFFJ-TV      Contact Us

 

 

Trump Makes Good on Campaign Promises

 

ü Repeal Obamacare

ü Withdraw from TPP

ü Build Southern Border Wall

 

By:  David Deschesne

Fort Fairfield Journal, February 1, 2017

 

   In a move that we're not used to seeing among establishment politicians, establishment outsider, President Donald Trump actually started making good on his campaign promises with lightening speed on his first day in office.

NoBamaCare

   On inauguration day, President Trump hit the ground running by signing an executive order to neuter the failed and busted “Obamacare” health insurance mandate law.  Originally billed as a means to provide “affordable” health insurance, the law actually increased insurance premiums on those who could afford to pay the full rate and put the taxpayer on the hook to pay for the premiums, through subsidies, of those who could not afford the additional monthly bills.   While this made insurance premiums for low income earners a low $75 per month in some cases, the additional $900 to $1000 per month of the total bill was paid out of the U.S. Treasury via borrowed money that accrued to the National Debt, which is now nearly $20 trillion.   The Obamacare law was written by the health insurance industry’s lobbying groups and was designed to bring them windfall profits under the fascist model where government partners with them to use the police power to enforce the sales of their service to unwilling buyers.

   Throughout his campaign, candidate Trump said he would take the necessary steps to abolish the law and on inauguration day he did just that by signing his first executive order entitled,  Executive Order Minimizing the Economic Burden of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act Pending Repeal.

   Pending Congressional repeal of the law, Trump's executive order directs the Secretary of Health and Human Services and the heads of all other executive departments and agencies to “exercise all authority and discretion available to them to waive, defer, grant exemptions from, or delay the implementation of any provision or requirement of the Act that would impose a fiscal burden on any State or a cost, fee, tax, penalty, or regulatory burden on individuals, families, healthcare providers, health insurers, patients, recipients of healthcare services, purchasers of health insurance, or makers of medical devices, products, or medications.”

   In plain language, it puts a hold on all mandates to purchase insurance, further implementation of the law and a freeze on all fines or penalties imposed by the law which was dreamt up by radical Socialists and Communists of the former Barry Soetero Hussein-Obama regime.

   However, one Republican Senator says she's “confused” about the Executive Order - an order that is written so plainly a five year-old can understand it.  That Senator is Susan Collins, from Maine.  She said on Capitol Hill shortly after the release of the executive order,  “I think that the executive order is very confusing and that we really don't know yet what the impact will be.  Until there is a secretary in place who can interpret the regulations or do the rulemaking to rescind regulations, it's very difficult to say what the impact of the executive order is going to be.”

   It's not surprising that Senator Collins is confused since she masquerades as a Republican while espousing and endorsing many of the Socialist policies of the Democrat party.  Getting elected as a conservative, then legislating like a Socialist Democrat is apt to confuse most people - including the voters who continually elect her.

Trans-Pacific Partnership

   Three days later, on January 23, President Trump issued a Presidential Memorandum to the United States Trade Representative directing him to withdraw the United States from the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP).  The TPP, like its forerunner, NAFTA, was designed to eliminate what's left of the manufacturing jobs in the United States and ship them over to China and other Asian countries that use slave labor to manufacture goods that are then shipped back into the U.S. to unfairly compete with U.S. labor.

   In his memorandum, President Trump stated, “It is the policy of my Administration to represent the American people and their financial well-being in all negotiations, particularly the American worker, and to create fair and economically beneficial trade deals that serve their interests. Additionally, in order to ensure these outcomes, it is the intention of my Administration to deal directly with individual countries on a one-on-one (or bilateral) basis in negotiating future trade deals. Trade with other nations is, and always will be, of paramount importance to my Administration and to me, as President of the United States.”

   Many Democrats, and union officials actually opposed the Trans-Pacific Partnership because of its job-killing designs.  So they find themselves in a quandary by having a President they detest actually taking steps to help their position.

   The Memorandum directs the yet-to- be approved U.S. Trade Representative to “withdraw the United States as a signatory to the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), to permanently withdraw the United States from TPP negotiations, and to begin pursuing, wherever possible, bilateral trade negotiations to promote American industry, protect American workers, and raise American wages. You are directed to provide written notification to the Parties and to the Depository of the TPP, as appropriate, that the United States withdraws as a signatory of the TPP and withdraws from the TPP negotiating process.”

Build the Wall

    On January 25, President Trump took steps toward another one of his key campaign promises, to build a wall on the Southern border of the U.S. to keep out anyone who wants to enter the country illegally.

   In his Executive Order entitled, Border Security and Immigration Enforcement Improvements President Trump states, “Border security is critically important to the national security of the United States. Aliens who illegally enter the United States without inspection or admission present a significant threat to national security and public safety. Such aliens have not been identified or inspected by Federal immigration officers to determine their admissibility to the United States. The recent surge of illegal immigration at the southern border with Mexico has placed a significant strain on Federal resources and overwhelmed agencies charged with border security and immigration enforcement, as well as the local communities into which many of the aliens are placed.”

   Trump further stated, “Transnational criminal organizations operate sophisticated drug- and human-trafficking networks and smuggling operations on both sides of the southern border, contributing to a significant increase in violent crime and United States deaths from dangerous drugs. Among those who illegally enter are those who seek to harm Americans through acts of terror or criminal conduct. Continued illegal immigration presents a clear and present danger to the interests of the United States.”

   According to the Executive Order, Federal immigration law both imposes the responsibility and provides the means for the Federal Government, in cooperation with border States, to secure the Nation's southern border. “Although Federal immigration law provides a robust framework for Federal-State partnership in enforcing our immigration laws and the Congress has authorized and provided appropriations to secure our borders the Federal Government has failed to discharge this basic sovereign responsibility. The purpose of this order is to direct executive departments and agencies to deploy all lawful means to secure the Nation's southern border, to prevent further illegal immigration into the United States, and to repatriate illegal aliens swiftly, consistently, and humanely.”

   The Executive Order relies on the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1101 et seq.) (INA), the Secure Fence Act of 2006 (Public Law 109 367) (Secure Fence Act), and the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 (Public Law 104 208 Div. C) (IIRIRA), to direct the Secretary of Homeland Security to “take all appropriate steps to immediately plan, design, and construct a physical wall along the southern border, using appropriate materials and technology to most effectively achieve complete operational control of the southern border; (b) Identify and, to the extent permitted by law, allocate all sources of Federal funds for the planning, designing, and constructing of a physical wall along the southern border; (c) Project and develop long-term funding requirements for the wall, including preparing Congressional budget requests for the current and upcoming fiscal years; and (d) Produce a comprehensive study of the security of the southern border, to be completed within 180 days of this order, that shall include the current state of southern border security, all geophysical and topographical aspects of the southern border, the availability of Federal and State resources necessary to achieve complete operational control of the southern border, and a strategy to obtain and maintain complete operational control of the southern border.”

   This does not mean people from Mexico and other countries will no longer be admitted into the U.S., it merely means they'll have to cross the border at established Ports of Entry and be subject to inspection just like all other law-abiding immigrants.