President-elect Donald J. Trump has released his plan for the first 100 days of his presidency, with it he proves true to his word.
In a document titled, “Contract with the American Voter” Trump outlines a 100-day plan to “make America great again”. The document is laden with policy proposals designed to eliminate lobbying in Washington D.C. and improving foreign trade deals.
These two principles formed a great part of Trump’s election campaign mantra, where he repeatedly stated his desire to “drain the swamp” of D.C. and to put “Americans first.”
To “drain the swamp”, the president-elect unveils a plan to curtail lobbying. Washington D.C. is known to be full of lobbyists, enabling a culture of “politics as usual”.
Trump mandates a 5-year ban on former White House and Congressional staffers to pursue lobbying careers after they have left public service.
He also goes hard on foreign lobbying, which is vital to ensuring that American interests are served first. In his plan, President-elect Trump calls for a ban on lobbyists for foreign entities and a lifetime ban for anyone caught lobbying for a foreigners.
Trump also wants to ban foreign groups raising money for candidates running in American elections.
Trump then states a plan to amend the constitution to impose term limits among politicians. This is a grievance popular between conservative, small-government voters as well with left-leaning progressives.
He also plans to introduce a hiring freeze on all federal employees, making exceptions for health care and military. This is a move expected of a candidate running on a “smaller government” platform.
It was reported last month that in the United States, federal bureaucrats outnumber manufacturing workers by almost 10 million people. A testament to an overblown bureaucracy.
Such an endeavor could be extreme in the sense that it would lose to the delay of vital government service, but the fact that Trump’s plan explicitly outlines an exemption to medical services and national security makes it a moderate policy.
The president-elect’s also makes good on his promise to “put America first.” This mantra is behind Trump’s plan to withdraw from the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA).
Both those trade deals were deemed to favor foreign workers by Trump, this sentiment is supported by views from the Economic Policy Institute which stated that NAFTA caused: “the loss of some 700,000 jobs as production moved to Mexico.”
NAFTA is also criticized by the left for being “environmentally destructive” and for eroding labour conditions.
The same criticisms were given for the TPPA, which has spurred protests all over the globe from both right-leaning and left-leaning activists.
By attacking these trade deals, not only is Trump putting American workers first as he promised but also making a bi-partisan home-run.
Other priorities include labeling China as a “currency manipulator” and imposing appropriate trade sanctions, lifting restrictions on $50 trillion energy jobs and a plan to repeal and replace Obamacare.
Trump’s first 100 days plan is void of any extremist policy proposals that the liberal pro-Clinton camp threatened would include, these include the likes of a total ban on Muslim immigration and a witch-hunt on the LGBT.
There also is no extremist policy directed towards Mexicans, instead there is a plan to vet migrants more strictly, to remove taxpayer-funding of “sanctuary cities” which are illegal and to expedite deportation of illegal migrants – who should not be in the U.S. in the first place.
Naturally, anti-Trumpers would find such policy proposals to be radical. In reality, these policies are popular to majority of Americans and are constitutionally and legally viable as well.
This is not to say that the 100-day plan is perfect, as it includes a plan to reintroduce the Keystone Pipeline and a vague plan to restrict immigration from “terror prone” nations.
Yet overall, Trump’s blueprint should surprise many – in a positive way – that expected floundering, incoherent and extreme proposals.
What they see instead is a moderate plan that is no different from the proposals from the likes of Mitt Romney and Jeb Bush who are seen as the “moderate” Republicans.
Best of all, Trump’s policy proposal could be a step in the right direction for America to heal bi-partisan rifts.
As with any plan, we have to wait and see if these proposals come to fruition and if the Donald will pursue future policies that are legitimately extreme.
If the latter does not happen and this plan is executed, then the prospect of an “apocalypse” would be deterred.
LOUIE ENCABO.com 