Sign of the Times: “Right
or Left Way” for the Country
(Not Political Ideology)
This most-interesting
timeline story about Trump’s efforts and aim to “undue everything Obama.”
WASHINGTON (AP) — Amid the turmoil over staff shake-ups, blocked
travel bans, and the Russia scandal cloud hanging over him, Trump is steadily
plugging away at major pieces of his agenda: “Undo Everything Obama.” That is effort
to wipe every trace of Obama. Remove anything that shows he was a decent man served
very effective as president – so shame on Trump. But, it hasn't all been smooth
sailing since Russia still hangs over Trump’s head and Obama never had anything
like touch him – nothing. Trump failed to fulfill his key signature pledge” “to
repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act” but Trump and Ryan couldn't Republicans
to back new health care legislation, they pulled it.
Trump did have some outcomes (at least in his view) in some areas:
CLIMATE CHANGE: Trump signed another EO to deliver on his pledge to
unravel efforts to curb global warming with this order to a full review of the
Clean Power Plan, Obama's chief effort to curb carbon emissions by restricting
greenhouse gas emissions at coal-fired power plants. Trump also lifted a
14-month-old halt on new coal leases on federal lands. The Obama administration
had imposed a three-year freeze on such leases in January of last year. The
executive order covers a range of other Obama-era rules, including requirements
to factor the "social cost" of carbon emissions into all regulatory
actions and to crack down on methane emissions at oil and gas wells. Business
groups had complained to Trump, himself a businessman, that the rules were
intrusive and expensive.
INTERNET PRIVACY (a
big 4th Amendment Issue for Sure): Trump is expected to sign a bill to
block online privacy regulations the FCC issued under Obama's final months in
office. Damage: A first step toward allowing internet providers to sell
information about their customers' browsing habits w/o subscriber’s permission
or approval. The FCC rule was designed to give consumers more control over how companies
like Comcast, AT&T, and Verizon share on-line browsing information. Critics
complained that the rule would have increased costs, stifled innovation, and
picked winners and losers among internet companies. W/H PR guru, Sean Spicer
says the rule represents “federal overreach” and that Mr. Trump had pledged as
a candidate to reverse.
ABORTION/FAMILY PLANNING: Trump
is expected to sign legislation erasing another Obama rule, one that barred
states from withholding federal family planning funds from Planned Parenthood
affiliates and other clinics that provide abortions. The
rule was finalized shortly before Obama left office in January, and this
measure cleared the Senate with VP Pence called in to cast the tie-breaking
51st vote in the 100-member chamber, not the passage per se, but a rule
provision to proceed with the bill – which in and of itself was highly and historically
irregular – VP votes to break a tie on bills for passage not Senate rules and
processes.
KEYSTONE XL OIL PIPELINE: Trump
greenlighted the long-delayed project reversing Obama's decision less than 18
months earlier. After Trump invited TransCanada, the Canadian company building
the $8 billion pipeline, to resubmit its application, the State Department
approved the project, saying it would advance U.S. national interests. Obama
had said the project would not. Approval came nearly a decade after TransCanada
applied to complete the 1,700-mile (2,735 kilometers) pipeline to carry oil
from tar sands in Alberta, Canada, to refineries along the Texas Gulf Coast. Trump
says the project will reduce costs and reliance on foreign oil, and create
thousands of jobs (which are only temp jobs at best with less than 50 full time
jobs in the end).
DAKOTA ACCESS PIPELINE: Under
Obama, the Army Corps of Engineers had declined in December to allow pipeline
construction under South Dakota's Lake Oahe on grounds that alternate routes
needed to be considered. Native American tribes had sued to block construction,
arguing that the pipeline threatened their water supply and cultural sites.
However, it has moved forward again under Trump, who acted shortly after taking
office. In February, the Army Corps of Engineers abandoned further study and
granted an easement that was needed to complete the pipeline. Energy Transfer
Partners immediately began drilling under the lake.
FUEL EFFICIENCY STANDARDS: The
Trump administration is re-examining federal requirements governing the fuel
efficiency of cars and trucks. In 2012, the Obama administration set fuel
economy regulations for model years 2017-2025 and agreed to complete a midterm
evaluation by next year. Then, days before Obama left office, the EPA decided
to keep stringent requirements it had set in place for model years 2022-2025. The
auto industry balked. Trump announced he's putting the midterm review back on
track requiring EPA to determine NLT April 2018 whether the 2022-2025 standards
are appropriate or not.
TRANS-PACIFIC PARTNERSHIP
(TPP): Obama backed the agreement
involving for the U.S. and 11 other Pacific Rim nations. The Senate needed to
ratify it, but bi-partisan opposition doomed it even before Obama left office.
Trump railed against the agreement and pledged to withdraw from it, saying he
was a better negotiator and could strike better deals. We then withdrew from
TPP.
ABORTION/MEXICO CITY POLICY: Trump reinstated the ban on providing federal funds to
international groups that perform abortions or provide information about them.
Obama had lifted the ban when he took office in 2009. Known as the “Mexico City
Policy” or, by critics, as the “Global gag rule,” the regulation has been a
political volleyball, instituted by Republican administrations and rescinded by
Democratic ones since 1984. Trump signed it one day after the 44th anniversary
of the Supreme Court's 1973 Roe vs. Wade decision that legalized abortion in
the United States. The policy also prohibits taxpayer funding for groups that
lobby to legalize abortion or promote it as a family planning method.
PERSONAL FINANCE: Trump
has instructed the DOL to delay an Obama-era rule that would require financial
professionals who charge commissions to put their clients' best interests first
when advising them on retirement investments under the “fiduciary rule” was aimed at blocking consultants from
steering clients toward investments with higher commissions and fees that can
eat away at retirement savings. (Note: The financial services industry
argued that the rule would limit retirees' investment choices by forcing asset
managers to steer them to low-risk options. Undoing that rule was part of a
promised assault by Trump on banking rules enacted after the Great Recession.
I add: The greedy SOB’s got their way with the “W/H businessman.”
Also Trump directed Treasury to review the 2010 Dodd-Frank financial
oversight law, which
he has said is a disaster. (Note:
That law's aim was to keep banks from repeating practices that many blamed for
the financial meltdown of 2008).
So, which way are heading
now? More importantly, which way should we be heading: Forward or backward?
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