Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer flanked by fellow Democratic Senators
Congressional Democrats, led by U.S. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and U.S. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, held a press conference Friday morning to highlight Donald Trump‘s first 100 days of failure and broken promises. The Democrats, who have held similar events during the past week on different subjects, focused on Friday on Trump’s preliminary federal budget proposal for Fiscal Year 2018, which his White House released in March, and for which negotiations are now heating up. Of particular note by the Democrats is Trump’s failure to deliver on his biggest campaign promises, including the border wall and repeal of the Affordable Care Act.
Among Trump’s broken promises that the Democrats outlined were:
Infrastructure — Pelosi noted that Trump had campaigned on massive infrastructure spending for things liked roads, bridges and airports, but “instead, his budget slashes billions from job-creating infrastructure investments in the Transportation Department.” Other Democrats speaking at the press conference similarly mentioned that Trump’s budget cuts or eliminates funding for transportation, health research, education, home heating for low-income seniors, the Community Development Block Grant (which gives communities important tools for economic development), public-private partnerships to create manufacturing jobs, rural airports and agricultural development, Meals on Wheels and other crucial areas.
Border Wall — Schumer stated that, just as Democrats and Republicans were having discussions on border security, Trump insisted that taxpayer funding for his border wall (which Trump had promised would be paid for by Mexico) be included in the budget, causing a crisis which threatened to shut down the federal government over the issue.
Healthcare — Schumer reminded the audience that, during the election campaign and more recently, Trump had promised “insurance for everybody, lower costs,” but that, after his first healthcare proposal failed to garner a House vote due to its unpopularity, Trump’s recently released second healthcare proposal was even worse. For example, the new proposal would eliminate the Affordable Care Act’s prohibitions on discriminating against people with pre-existing conditions, and the current law’s requirement that insurance companies provide “essential benefits.”
Taxes — Schumer pointed out that, “as a candidate, Trump promised to lower taxes for middle class Americans,” but that Trump’s recently released tax proposal “is a wish list for billionaires” that “is designed to cut Trump’s taxes, not the taxes of the middle class.”
Today’s Democratic press conference occurred against the backdrop of the Trump/Russia scandal, which is now enveloping Michael Flynn. However, Congressman Hakeem Jeffries said at the event that Trump has been creating “chaos, crisis and confusion.” Jeffries may have been referring in part to Trump’s propensity to try to change the subject and even manufacture or inflame a crisis, as he is now doing with North Korea. It is now a Friday ritual to try to draw Americans’ attention, including that of the media, to one issue or another and have that be the topic of discussion for the weekend TV news and talk programs. In Trump’s case, Friday is becoming the Day of Distraction.
Photo by Senate Democrats, used under Creative Commons license. https://is.gd/fKahmu
