USA SEEN THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS
Truth has now become flexible, many believe 'Alternate Truths'
Alice protested: "That's not what you said yesterday!"
"The truth is what I say it is!" proclaimed the Mad Hatter.
"So yesterday you told a LIE!" protested Alice.
"Not at all. I never tell lies," the Mad Hatter insisted. "Just alternative truths!"
Apologies to Lewis Carroll
We all tell fibs. "Where did you go after school?"; "Nowhere!"
Politicians make promises to supporters, that are impossible to achieve.
But overall, western societies expect people in authourity NOT to tell outright LIES.
Deliberate lying while under oath, in a court, in a Grand Jury, or in a Congessional Inquiry, is considered a felony. You or I, if convicted for commiting perjury, might go to prison, as Martha Stewart (renowned entrepreneur) did for fibbing about stock purchases, while under oath.
Regretfully, nowadays, the telling of deliberate lies by politicians has become commonplace.
For example, during recent Congressional Hearings to approve nominations to head government departments, many nominees lied, or at best avoided answering direct questions.
Specifically, Jeff Sessions, nominee for Attorney General (the highest legal position in government) denied having conversations with Russians during the election campaign, during which he held a major position on Trump's staff. Later he admitted that he had two meetings with the Russian ambassador. He excused himself, first by saying he forgot the meetings, then that he misunderstood the questions.
UNTRUTHFUL PROMISES IN TRUMP ELECTION CAMPAIGN
Donald Trump gained considerable support from the blue-collar population, unhappy with the loss of good jobs and declining incomes. To obtain this support he made many very specific commitments of actions he would take immediately, if elected. Even as he made these promises to the electorate, he knew that they would require Congressional approval, which might take months.
Now after 100 days in office, what is happening to his commitments? No action has been taken on some of them. Others are in limbo, or have been abandoned.
1. DRAIN the SWAMP! i.e. cut down the influence of lobbyists in government departments, eliminate the revolving door of congressmen and senior officials becoming lobbyists at the end of their terms and eliminating lobbyists from becoming officials in the epartments they lobbied.
In the first days in office, with a public flourish, Trump signed a several Executive Orders. But Congress must pass the appropriate Bills, and so far the President has not requested any action.
However, most of the Department Heads that he has appointed are billionaires with a personal interest in the results of the Departments they head!.
The President himself has refused to follow the ethical procedres enacted by all Presidents in the last 70 years, namely to disclose his own tax returns. and to divest himself of personal businesses that profit from goverment activities. He has also appointed family members to prominent positions in the White House.
2. 'I am going to repeal and replace ObamaCare. We will have MUCH less expensive and MUCH better healthcare. I am going to repeal replace & save healthcare for ALL Americans.' He promised this would the first thing he does, after election;
In fact, Trump fully endorsed Paul Ryan's proposed Health Care bill AHCA, which many Republicans rejected, and never passed. The bi-partisan Budget Office projected it would RAISE COSTS and force 24 million poorer Americans to lose their health insurance guaranteed by 'ObamCare'. At the end of the first 100 days, Trump abandoned his fight to repeal Obama's Affordable Care Act, to
move on to 'more important matters'. However, he immediately issued Executive Orders to make changes to the existing Affordable Care Act, to reduce payments of premiums for poor people and to eliminate compulsory participation in health care insurance plans or pay a special 3.5% tax. This order automatically increases premiums if healthy young people refuse to participate.
3. 'I will create 25 million new jobs - I will request a trillion dollars to repair the nation's infrastructure and provide thousands of new jobs.'
So far hothing has been done, nor requested. The opposite has occurred. The President's budget proposals would actually cut funding for many government departments that would be responsible for carrying out his promises.
4. 'I will deport illegal immigrants and restrict entry of Muslims to our great country.'
The first promise is being met by sharply increasing arrests and deportations of persons without proper documentation. To meet the second promise, Trump almost immediately issued an Executive Order prohibiting entry to the United States of citizens of 7 Middle Eastern countries. This caused chaos at airports because persons with valid visas and residence permits were held in custody or returned to the country from which they had arrived.
Federal Judges in several different courts have all ruled that this order is unconstitutional, because it applies to people of a specific religion and denies proper legal procedures.
5. Simplify the Tax Code and provide tax reductions to allow businesses to invest and provide more jobs; and provide higher incomes for the middle class.
Every one agrees that the Tax Code needs simplification. Since the last simplification under Kresident Reagan, 40 years ago, lobbyists for special interests have persuaded Congressmen of both parties to introduce hundreds of special clauses and loopholes.
In the last of the 100 days, Trump introduced his tax reform proposals, which eliminate most presently allowable deductions and propose the largest ever cuts in tax rates. Economic experts on left and right estimate that these cuts will most likely add over 7 Trillion dollars to the national debt over 10 years.
Trump and some Republicans claim the tax reductions will pay for themselves by increasing investments and taxable revenues. However the huge tax reductions by Reagan did inccrease revenues, but the National Debt sky-rocketed and caused large inflation which wiped out the effectiveness of the increases in revenue. Under Clinton taxes were increased, inflation eliminated and the deficit replaced by a surplus.
More significant is the fact that the highest increases in NET INCOME (resulting from tax reduction) go to real estate developers and hedge fund managers, which include Trump's family and advisors.
6. Other pre-election promises, such as changes to international trade and policies, building a wall along the Mexican border, etc. made big headlines but were of lesser interest to the blue collar workers and farming families, who constituted the swing in voting.
Virtually none of them have been adopted. In fact on many of them President Trump made a complete reversal. In the interim the bi-partisan funding agreement at the beginning of May, no funds were provided for the Wall. Large increases were allocated to the Military and Immigration Controls(as requested by the President).
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