President Trump’s Promises and Truth from the Perspective of Tax Policy
It’s rare that people stick with campaign promises as much as Donald Trump. He thought that fulfilling his promises to make America first was the best way to gain the confidence of voters and acted that way. How well are his main campaign promises for 2016 Presidential Election?
Regarding trade policy, he had promised to withdraw from NAFTA. After taking office, he renegotiated with Mexico and Canada, and reached a new agreement with these countries in favor of the United States. The agreement is moving towards ratification. And he withdrew U.S. from TPP aiming for zero tariff in order to use tariffs to negotiate bilateral trade in favor of the United States. He also promised to reduce the trade deficit with China by increasing tariffs. U.S. imposed the first to fourth punitive duties on China which triggered counterattack punitive duties by China. As a result, it is developing into the U.S.-China trade war.
Regarding environmental policy, he promised and decided to withdraw from the Paris Agreement which is the international framework for global warming countermeasures.
Regarding energy policy, he promised the deregulation of resource development and indeed signed the presidential decree Promoting Energy Independent and Economic Growth.
Regarding undocumented immigrant’s policy, he promised to build a wall along the border with Mexico. But he could not secure the budget for that because of the opposition of House Democrats. He was forced to declare a state of emergency and get money for the wall building out of defense budget.
Regarding health care policy, he promised to completely abolish 2010 Patient and Affordable Care Act (Obamacare). But he could only abolish the penalty on health insurance non-members.
While he may look good in trying to keep his promises as mentioned above, he is criticized from home and abroad with undesirable consequences because his promises themselves go against the times, and his trying to promote them ignoes international rules and democracy.
(Author: Masatoshi Katagiri)
This essay is the English version of No. 24, June 12, 2019 on the Japanese website.