With the election passed, the future of Donald Trump’s America is now in view. What voters can presently look to is “Donald Trump’s Contract with the American Voter,” a 100 day plan released by the Trump campaign in late October. The plan contains three major reforms: cleaning up Washington, protecting American workers and restoring the “rule of law.” The information below is a compilation of statements made by Donald Trump and his campaign in both speeches and official releases regarding major administrative plans:

• Draining the Swamp: This is Trump’s term for his major government reforms. Biggest among them is a proposed Constitutional Amendment that would impose term limits on all members of congress, which holds an unpopular opinion by many of those in government now. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has said that, “it will not be on the agenda in the Senate,” Other drainages include shrinking the federal workforce, a five year-ban on government officials becoming lobbyists after government service (and a lifetime ban on White house officials lobbying for a foreign government) and a Campaign finance reform banning foreign lobbyists from funding American election campaigns.
• Cancel President Obama’s executive orders: The president has the full authority to repeal any executive orders of their predecessor. Chief among these orders is the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals Act (DACA), which Trump has promised to “immediately” cancel. DACA and its expanded version, DAPA (for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents), are programs offering deferred deportation and two-year work permits to young adults between the ages of 15 and 30 who were illegally brought to the U.S. as children. More than 740,000 people have been approved with up to 1.7 million potentially eligible. Other orders include Obama’s executive order requiring background checks on firearms sold at gun shows. Trump has also pledged to ban gun-free zones in schools and military bases.
• Request a full repeal of Obamacare: Trump initially promised to fully repeal Obamacare — possibly on the first day of his presidency — but has since stated that he hopes to keep two main pillars of the program (statutes prohibiting the denial of insurance based on preexisting conditions and the allowance of children to be on their parents’ plans). Based on Trump’s contract, the piece of legislation is entitled the “Repeal and Replace Obamacare Act,” and after day one the administration will replace it with a plan that creates, “Health Savings Accounts, the ability to purchase health insurance across state lines and allows states manage Medicaid funds.” Independent analysts have shown that the repeal would increase the federal deficit by up to $41 billion and increase the number of uninsured individuals in the U.S. by up to 25 million.
• “Suspend immigration from terror-prone regions”: This includes regions were vetting cannot safely occur. The statement references that all vetting, “will be considered extreme vetting,” and from his campaign statements, it is assumed that those primarily targeted will be those of Islamic faith. However, some are skeptical of how a screening process would work as current U.S. immigration law, “does not take religion into account in the approval of visas, and current applications do not include questions about religious identity or affiliation.” The statement did not include which countries are considered “terror-prone regions” but if the countries in which ISIS has recruited from are considered then there are more than 80.
• Trade: The president does have the authority to back out of trade deals, and Donald Trump has announced his intention to renegotiate NAFTA or even withdraw from the agreement. His statement, however, claims a full withdrawal from the TPP, as countries involved in the partnership have agreed not to renegotiate. According to Alan Wolff, a former U.S. deputy trade representative, for the United States to withdraw from NAFTA other countries in the agreement, “would have a list of things they’d want.”
• “End the Offshoring Act”: This is Trump’s tariff plan to bring industry back to the United States. Throughout his campaign the stated tariff rates have varied from 20 to 45 percent, depending on the country and product. Numerous experts have noted that there is no exact answer to how Trump’s tariffs would affect the economy, but most agree that the economy would take a big hit and high tariffs are likely to cause trade wars, possibly costing hundreds of thousands of jobs in worst case scenarios.
• “End Illegal Immigration Act”: This act would fund the construction of a wall along the southern border with, “the full understanding that the country Mexico will be reimbursing the United States for the full cost of such wall.” It would also establish a minimum federal prison sentence for those reentering the U.S. after deportation or with criminal convictions, and would also change visa rules to include harsher penalties for overstaying. This act works in conjunction with Trump’s plan to deport more than 2 million illegal immigrants and, “cancel visas to foreign countries that won’t take them back.” “Recalcitrant” countries are those labeled by ICE because they, “will not accept criminal aliens sent home from the U.S,” and under Trump’s plan the State Department could withhold visas for such country’s citizens until the country agrees to accept deportees. Regarding the wall, the president of Mexico stated that the country would not be willing to finance a border wall when he met with Trump this past summer. Trump did hint at a possible deportation task force during the campaign, however Speaker of the House Paul Ryan has since stated that the government is not, “planning on erecting a deportation force.”
• Taxes: The Middle Class Tax Relief and Simplification Act would do several things. First, it would collapse the seven federal tax brackets into three and lower taxes for all workers across the board. The very wealthy, however, would still enjoy the greatest tax cuts, giving them a factor or two more than the Bush tax cuts did. Among those taking the biggest tax hits are single parent households. However, less taxes means less revenue for the government, and it is expected to raise the federal deficit by about $5 trillion dollars.

The contract in its entirety can be found at https://www.donaldjtrump.com/contract

The post Cowan: What Trump wants to do in his first 100 days appeared first on Emerald Media.