100 Days of Nothing

CNN obtained Donald's "list of accomplishments" in his first 100 days -- the list that his administration came up with to use as talking points -- and going over it I had to laugh. Most of what he considered an accomplishment hasn't actually been implemented. Hence, it's really Donald's 100 Days of Nothing.

Let's go over it line by line:

"CUTTING REGULATIONS"

• Energy Independence Executive Order
• Does practically nothing. Ultimately, markets drive energy choices, not presidents. Nonetheless, if he were serious about energy independence, he would steer US away from fossil fuels and towards green energy. Last I checked, oil markets are heavily influenced by OPEC. Besides, he doesn't quite understand the energy price paradox -- increased prices create incentives to drill while lower prices add disincentives to domestic production; you can see this effect in the unemployment rate changes in Montana and Wyoming.
• Revocation Of Federal Contracting Executive Orders
• Because nothing says "helping the middle class" like lowering the bar of federal contractors who then hire H-2A migrant employees just like Donald.
• Reexamination Of CAFE Standards
• Does not repeal standards; review requires time and is made insignificant by California's CARB standards for automakers, which are then adopted by over a dozen other states. Automakers aren't going to create separate tooling/assembly lines just to sell fewer cars to dirtier states. As if to punctuate this point, CARB recently issued new guidelines.
• Review Of Waters Of The United States Rule
• Does not repeal standards; review requires time and may be (likely will be) subject to a lawsuit.
• Creation Of Regulatory Task Forces
• Has done nothing. No reports, and even if they propose cuts, they have to go through the regular process of removing regulations -- you can't just arbitrarily cut regulations, after all.
• Eliminating Stream Protection Rule
• Was never implemented in the first place, but I guess this might be considered a win for him. Its effect, in the long run, might be negligible, considering that the target of this rule was coal and their tailings. Save a dying industry but poison poor Americans -- that's the Trump way.
• Eliminating Regulations On Extraction Companies
• Touting this is both odd and amusing because it lets companies off the hook from having to disclose and remove foreign sources of minerals that came from bad -- eg blood diamonds -- sources. Does nothing for American workers.
• One-In-Two-Out Regulation Reform
• This hasn't done a damned thing. The last I checked -- two weeks ago -- the federal register hadn't reflected any revocation of rules, even as new rules were added.
• Minimizing Affordable Care Act
• The sole effect so far has been that the IRS is no longer asking if you've had coverage all year, but insurers are still sending out 1095 forms. It does not mean that the IRS can't go after you in the future, however.

"JOB CREATION"

• Buy American, Hire American Pipeline
• The DAP was given an exception, making this EO stupid and worthless, besides, the US cannot force private industry to use US products lest it violates a basic tenet of WTO rules. See DAP.
• Dakota Access Pipeline
• The pipeline had already been built with the exception of the portion that traversed under Lake Oahe, so it did not "create jobs".
• U.S. Material In Pipeline Construction
• Again, this is BS because the US cannot force private industry to use US materials.
• Partnering With Private Sector
• Has not happened, except in the sense that Donald has asked private sector what it wants to be eliminated. Or maybe he's referencing his BS idea of handing over infrastructure to private industry? That hasn't happened either.

"TRADE"

• Withdrawal From The Trans-Pacific Partnership
• Yeah, and you know what happened? China stepped in with FTAs with some of those members of the TPP. Donald wanted leverage over China, so he took the best leverage over China and threw it away. He really is stupid.
• Trade Enforcement
• All talk. They haven't brought a single complaint to the WTO. Seriously, in the three months since taking office, Donald hasn't filed a single WTO complaint. In Obama's final two months, he brought 3 complaints to the WTO, two of which were directed at China. Donald's a real tough guy, he is.
• Comprehensive Reports On The Causes Of U.S. Trade Deficits
• The "plan" is to have reports issued. No report has yet been issued. Of course what this really is, is Donald asking for someone to write his book report for him so that he doesn't have to read a whole book.

"ETHICS"

• Federal Hiring Freeze
• Odd (or rather, hypocritical) to put the hiring freeze under "ethics", especially since the hiring freeze effectively slowed ethics reviews.
• New Ethics Commitments On Political Appointees
• Every incoming administration offers up a new version of ethics rules. What this doesn't tell you is that his EO removed the ethics commitments on other people. So much for draining the swamp.

"NATIONAL SECURITY"

• Strike On Syrian Airfield
• That helped national security, how? We didn't destroy Assad's remaining chemical weapons, now did we? In fact, their own reasoning for the strike was to send a message to not use it on Syrians, not for the sake of US national security.
• Travel Restrictions On Select Countries
• Not. Here's the thing though: If Donald were serious about his "extreme vetting", and, following the second restraining order on his updated EO, you would think that they would be rushing to get that vetting process refined sooner than later. In one month we will have passed the 90-day mark on his original deadline for that "extreme vetting" plan. Apparently, it's not that critical.
• New Iran Sanctions
• Because nothing says we're protecting US national security quite like sanctions on a handful of Iranians. It's not that sanctions aren't effective, but that adding a handful of Iranians to an existing list isn't going to effect stronger national security.
• Defense Spending In Budget
• What budget? The one that hasn't yet been passed? Wait, does this mean that, by merely including defense spending in a budget, Trump is boasting about boosting national security? The bar is so low, it's under water. But wait, because of the Budget Control Act, Donald can't just increase defense spending...it's all BS, really.
• F-35 Cost Savings
• Does not affect national security, all things considered, and the cost savings were already in the works as the next round of procurement was being negotiated. Don't believe me? The Pentagon stated in 2015 that when the plane entered full production in 2018, the price should go down to $85M per plane -- that's lower than what Donald "negotiated". Oh well, so much for cost savings.

"IMMIGRATION"

• Immigration Enforcement, Including Constructing A Wall
• They don't even have the money to pay for design services.
• Sanctuary Cities Funding
• Will be successfully challenged in court under a couple of constitutional sections, and the funding hasn't actually been cut.
• New Hiring To Enforce Immigration
• The EO did not have the power to fund the new hiring; I have no idea where the money is coming from since Congress hasn't passed a spending bill yet. Must be a money tree.
• Prioritizing Criminal Immigration Enforcement And Hiring More Immigration Judges
• Again, EOs don't have the power to fund new hiring; serious criminals were always prioritized under Obama, and by some comparisons, ICE under Obama actually deported more people. What we know is that the Trump folks have gone after DACA folks, even lying about it.

"PUBLIC SAFETY"

• Commission On Opioid Crisis
• Hasn't done anything. As much as everyone would like to see progress on this, Jared's kind of busy with a million things.
• Protecting Law Enforcement Officers Crime
• Hasn't done anything.
• Tackling International Cartels
• Hasn't done anything. This bears repeating: Just because he signed an EO saying that this is what he wanted, doesn't mean that anything has been done. No money.

"HELPING WOMEN AND MINORITIES"

• HBCU Initiative
• The moxie here is astounding. At the same time that Donald's budget proposed cutting federal education money, he's expanding federal bureaucracy to help HBCUs expand enrollment? Huh? Isn't it going to be hard to expand enrollment if you slash grants?
• Canada-United States Council For The Advancement Of Women Entrepreneurs
• Has not done anything, has no money.
• Promoting Women In Entrepreneurship Act
• More moxie. While Donald was proposing to slash NSF science funding, he was also demanding that they support women entrepreneurship in science. In other words, a double-whammy for real science funding as his proposed budget would force the reallocation of research dollars in support of business.
• Women And Space Exploration
• Even more moxie. This one directed NASA to spend its money on encouraging women to enter science-related fields even as his budget squeezed out other NASA programs. His budget proposal didn't even keep up with inflation, but it expanded what NASA was supposed to do.

"SUPREME COURT"

• Nominating And Confirming Gorsuch
• The bar is low with Donald. It's not as though he wasn't going to nominate someone and the only way his nominee was confirmed was through the dismantling of Senate rules.