Trump has betrayed his voters

On the stump and in his tweets, President Trump isn’t simply all bluster and self-pity. He takes time to claim he has fulfilled his promises to the working-class voters who were essential to his 2016 election. But, as the incumbent, Trump has a record. The betrayal of this part of his base is apparent. And the noise of his tweets, serial outrages and stump-posturing no longer can distract from this reality.

By the president’s accounting, his accomplishments are legion. He boasts about his tax cuts — the “biggest in history.” He preens about his judges — “a historic transformation of the judiciary” — chosen to cater to the anti-choice passions of evangelical Christians. He brags about slashing regulations. He says his wall is being built. He promises once more to trash Obamacare and provide a much better alternative. He claims to still be avoiding endless wars. He champions his trade deals and his tariffs. And, of course, he takes — and gets — credit for the growing economy with low top-line unemployment.

The truth is different. Deaths from alcohol, drugs and suicide — deaths of despair — hit a new high in 2017. His assaults on Obamacare have left 2 million more Americans without health coverage, while he’s never come close to presenting a comprehensive alternative that would, in fact, meet his promise to provide “insurance for everybody.”

On the economy, the number of “good jobs” in manufacturing has gone from boom to bust. Inequality reached new extremes, as Trump’s appointed swamp of lobbyists, CEOs and operatives worm their way into the federal bureaucracy and create more corruption, rigged rules and rip-offs. His tax cut didn’t produce the “$4,000” pay boost he promised; rather it lined the pockets of the rich and the corporations. Chief executives used the corporate breaks mostly to buy back stock in an effort to please stockholders and boost the value of their stock options. And while his “wall” is arousing anger among homeowners whose properties are being requisitioned, he failed even to propose the rebuilding of America’s decrepit infrastructure that he promised.

His trade tariffs and deals certainly challenged the lousy deals of the past, but the result to date contributed to what the Federal Reserve calls a “technical recession” in the manufacturing sector and increasing economic strain on small farmers. No wonder bankruptcies and suicides are rising among small farmers. And while the White House trumpeted aid to farmers, the Environmental Working Group reports that the top 10 percent of farms — “the largest and most profitable, industrial scale farms in the country” — received 50 percent of the money. The bottom 80 percent received an average of $5,136.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/01/14/trump-has-betrayed-his-voters/