Philosophical Vegan Forum

http://www.npr.org/2016/11/09/501451368/here-is-what-donald-trump-wants-to-do-in-his-first-100-days

On Trump's proposal to impose term limits on Congress, McConnell said, "It will not be on the agenda in the Senate." McConnell has been a long-standing opponent of term limits, as NPR's Susan Davis reports. "I would say we have term limits now — they're called elections."

Trump wants to create congressional term limits. There's good and bad to this, but understanding that incumbents have a huge advantage and congress is entrenched right now, this could help clean out the old guard and bring in some fresh (and more progressive) blood from democrats, independents, and younger more modern republicans.

Trump wrote:* FIRST, propose a Constitutional Amendment to impose term limits on all members of Congress;

This is pretty serious too:

Trump wrote:* FOURTH, a 5 year-ban on White House and Congressional officials becoming lobbyists after they leave government service;

I don't know how meaningful this is, or what its significance would be:

Trump wrote:* FIFTH, a lifetime ban on White House officials lobbying on behalf of a foreign government;

* SIXTH, a complete ban on foreign lobbyists raising money for American elections.

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This will be good for some people, and terrible for others:

Trump wrote:School Choice And Education Opportunity Act. Redirects education dollars to give parents the right to send their kid to the public, private, charter, magnet, religious or home school of their choice. Ends common core, brings education supervision to local communities. It expands vocational and technical education, and make 2 and 4-year college more affordable.

There are two main problems with this:

1. It will let fundamentalists send their kids to religious schools to be brainwashed
--BUT this may also cause their children to reject fundamentalism MORE out of spite once they're introduced to the real world and learn how they've been taught lies. Possible long term benefit? I don't know.
2. Depending on how it's implemented, children in poor areas may end up with fewer resources.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o8yiYCHMAlM

There are also a lot of potential advantages, since low income parents in bad areas would have the ability to pull their kids from troubled public schools and send them somewhere potentially safer.
We really don't know what will happen; it could be great, or it could be a disaster.
Unfortunately, politicians (republicans and democrats) aren't very interested in testing their ideology based policies before unleashing them on the public.

Improving vocational and technical education is wonderful, and a hug boon to the poor. I look forward to reading more on this proposal.

Trump wrote:Repeal and Replace Obamacare Act. Fully repeals Obamacare and replaces it with Health Savings Accounts, the ability to purchase health insurance across state lines, and lets states manage Medicaid funds. Reforms will also include cutting the red tape at the FDA: there are over 4,000 drugs awaiting approval, and we especially want to speed the approval of life-saving medications.

Major mixed bag here.
Health savings accounts are great for the middle class, but for the poor this could be pretty bad news if there's no safety net.
They're also really good for encouraging people to eat healthier because it actually saves them money on healthcare (like by avoiding obesity).

At the same time, it sounds like breaking down state lines will benefit the poorer and sicker areas areas, and it might prevent stuff like this:
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/blue-cross-pulls-out-of-tenn.-obamacare-markets/article/2602834
Which is what happens when you let insurers selectively offer plans in different areas.
EDIT: Never mind, it sounds like he just wants to "let" the companies sell across state lines, not give everybody the right to buy across state lines, which is useless because the companies already do that if they want to (it's trivial to set up a presence in another state).

It says it will let states manage medicaid funds, and he plans to continue to support that system, so in states that expanded medicaid this could possibly work out better than the Affordable Care act for a lot of people. But in states that didn't, the poor may be kind of fucked.
However, since they are mainly republican states that chose not to expand, maybe political pressure will force that to happen once that hole opens up.
EDIT: Nope. he's giving out block grants which may be very limited. Only time will tell.

Funny how he throws in the myth of all of these life saving drugs the FDA is sitting on.
Obviously no concept of why we need to prove something is safe and effective. This could hurt people more than the coverage gap this change could create.

Trump wrote:Affordable Childcare and Eldercare Act. Allows Americans to deduct childcare and elder care from their taxes, incentivizes employers to provide on-side childcare services, and creates tax-free Dependent Care Savings Accounts for both young and elderly dependents, with matching contributions for low-income families.

That sounds great, although it will be expensive. That will be a huge advantage to the lower middle class, and probably for the poor too, and it should reduce crime.

As a non-american I'd like to point out the following bits and pieces I've noticed. Trump organised a visit to North Korea along with the return of dead US service personnel held by North Korea since the early 1950's- the first US President to do so. Trump bailed up Lockheed martin to ask why the Dept of Defense was paying $400 a rivet on the F-22 when he could buy them at Lowes for $4 for 10. Had the price reduced by $350 Million an aircraft when he threatened to buy more super hornets from boeing. There is SO MUCH MORE I could point out but heres a start.

Trump has essentially abandoned all of his good policy ideas. It appears that, once in office, he had no real ideology or commitment. He has done very very few good things, and far too many bad things. There was some hope there, but it vanished pretty fast.

However, now that Democrats have gained ground, he may swing again. We'll see.

Mick Peslo wrote: ↑Thu Oct 25, 2018 10:09 am As a non-american I'd like to point out the following bits and pieces I've noticed. Trump organised a visit to North Korea along with the return of dead US service personnel held by North Korea since the early 1950's- the first US President to do so.

That's the trouble; Trump says a lot of things without following through, and he doesn't worry about image and political consequence.
Diplomacy is VERY good, but so far it seems as likely that Trump will start WWIII as establish peace with North Korea. We just have no idea.

If he succeeds in brokering peace, it would be a big step, and a big gold star on his currently very poor record.

Mick Peslo wrote: ↑Thu Oct 25, 2018 10:09 amTrump bailed up Lockheed martin to ask why the Dept of Defense was paying $400 a rivet on the F-22 when he could buy them at Lowes for $4 for 10. Had the price reduced by $350 Million an aircraft when he threatened to buy more super hornets from boeing. There is SO MUCH MORE I could point out but heres a start.

OK, those rivets are not identical by any means (even though they may look it), there are certain structural standards, differences in tempering, batch testing, etc.

However, military overspending is no secret. That's interesting if true and I'd love to read more about that if you have a good source, but if so we're talking about a very small thing. Relative to the exorbitant expenses he's incurred and the catastrophic tax policies, I don't think we can call this presidency budget minded.

Hillary apparently is gonna run again in 2020;
https://www.politico.com/story/2018/11/ ... run-983684
I honestly wouldn't mind a Hillary Clinton Presidency, but a lot of liberals I know are terrified (for some reason).

Now that the Democrats have taken the House, Trump's gonna have a hard time getting any legislation passed, unless, as brimstone speculates, will change positions. He'll have to rely on Executive Orders (which can get reversed by a future President), since he still has the Supreme Court.

Do you think the Supreme Court is too powerful?

I think the court would be fine if the Republicans didn't cheat on what would have been the last Democrat appointment.

brimstoneSalad wrote: ↑Thu Nov 10, 2016 1:35 am

Trump wrote:Repeal and Replace Obamacare Act. Fully repeals Obamacare and replaces it with Health Savings Accounts, the ability to purchase health insurance across state lines, and lets states manage Medicaid funds. Reforms will also include cutting the red tape at the FDA: there are over 4,000 drugs awaiting approval, and we especially want to speed the approval of life-saving medications.

Major mixed bag here.
Health savings accounts are great for the middle class, but for the poor this could be pretty bad news if there's no safety net.
They're also really good for encouraging people to eat healthier because it actually saves them money on healthcare (like by avoiding obesity).

I don’t think there’s much progress he could make there with a fractured Republican congress. Although as Red stated, the Trump administration seems to be taking matters into its own hands via executive action.

Trump promised to repeal Obamacare on his very first day of office. Since his party couldn’t seem to reach a decision on healthcare reform, they instead passed a bill that would scrap the ACA requirement that all Americans be insured.

You could say he defeated the individual mandate of the bill. Although other facets are still enforced (including the employer mandate that requires companies provide health care to employees or pay a fine).

And now the democrats have regained their hold on the House. It's safe to say the Affordable Care Act isn’t going away anytime soon.

brimstoneSalad wrote: ↑Thu Nov 10, 2016 1:35 am This is pretty serious too:

Trump wrote:* FOURTH, a 5 year-ban on White House and Congressional officials becoming lobbyists after they leave government service;

Funny, Trump rescinded the executive order for that on like his last day in office lol.
https://www.politico.com/news/2021/01/2 ... aff-460608

I hate to sound like an idiot, but what would exactly be the benefits of such a policy?

Trump's original executive order makes it easier to avoid corruption.

It means that politicians are less likely to make a deal like "if I don't block your pipeline, will I get a job working at your company?" or if not quite that bad at least they might be tempted to be more cautious in reform because it´s at the back of their mind that they can´t anger the industry that is their most likely later job opportunity. This can lead to things like politicians failing to stand up to abuses of power and a cosy elite not helping the working class.

Politicians will fight harder for the rights of citizens if they are not half thinking about whether some of the companies they are dealing with might give them a job.

It´s also somewhat of an unfair advantage for a company to employ as lobbyists someone with insider knowledge of the system. Lobbyists have enough power already.

@Jamie in Chile Yeah that seems to make sense. Sounds like a really good idea now that you've explained the benefits, actually.

Apparantly, even before he rescinded the order, Trump failed to really follow through according to this:
https://www.politifact.com/truth-o-mete ... ional-off/

I still would have given him credit for it, since it's better than nothing, but he took it back before it could have made any difference whatsoever, so nyeh.

He did accomplish the no-lobbying-on-behalf-of-foreign-governments promise, but as brimstone said, the significance is a bit ambiguous:
https://www.politifact.com/truth-o-mete ... obbying-f/

If I were to guess, it MIGHT be overall harmful, considering the US's role in the world and its ability to help other countries, so not being allowing countries that need help to get to see behind the scenes of the US bureaucracy, and see how it operates and how to work with it. Again, just a guess.

I might do a thread on the good things Trump did, but I'm not sure if there's really enough material. Looking through the Polifact Trump-o-meter, very few of his promises he kept or compromised on stick out as good to me.

Jamie in Chile wrote: ↑Thu Jan 21, 2021 5:44 pm Trump's original executive order makes it easier to avoid corruption.

Yep, it's pretty amazing that one of the only good things he did, he undid. I can see why, he probably wants to keep his own options open and earn some favors.

Hopefully that's the ONE executive order from Trump Biden will reinstate. Maybe make it a lifetime ban too.
It's probably one he wouldn't have undone.

I'd be interested in seeing that breakdown @Red, However it's important to make sure people understand that overall he was a terrible president and should never be reelected because he poses a threat to the fabric of democracy itself.