Donald Trump took Crazy Promises to a whole new level this past campaign season, but it's not like the GOP hasn't been playing the same game a long time now. Well, now the GOP - and Trump is ostensibly one of them now - has majority control of the White House, Congress, the courts, and 2/3rds of the state governments. So, what about all those Crazy Promises?
Crazy Promise #1: The Wall
The other day, a Mexican politician climbed a section of wall that was already built and sat there, to prove a point.
“I was able to scale it, climb it, and sit myself right here,” (Mexican congressman) Guerra said in a video. “It would be simple for me to jump into the United States, which shows that it is unnecessary and totally absurd to build a wall.”
Tangentially, Trump also realized that there's no way we're getting rid of millions of people, most of whom have been here for a long time now, and it's time to start talking at least 'legal status,' if not citizenship. Conservatives and are not happy with this.
The Wall itself is estimated at anywhere from 12-22 billion dollars, of which DHS has identified 20 million dollars so far to put toward it. To pay for it, Trump floated a 20% tax on imports from Mexico, which lasted about a day, and then maybe just on exports, no, and then morphed into this BAT (border-adjusted tax) idea, which actually may be a very good way, in general, to compete with countries that rely heavily on VAT taxes (value-added taxes which, in a practical sense, often work the same way) instead of income taxes. Of course, most all those countries also have universal healthcare too, so employers there still have a big edge. Either way, Mexico will not be paying for this silly Wall - you will.
Crazy Promise #2: Repeal Obamacare
During President Obama's terms, the Republicans in the House voted to repeal Obamacare 67 times. They haven't voted on it since Trump's swearing-in. Say's John Boehner (who shortly after a few rods with the Pope, quit his job), “They’ll fix Obamacare, and I shouldn’t have called it repeal and
replace because that’s not what’s going to happen. They’re basically
going to fix the flaws and put a more conservative box around it.”
Let's keep to these two for now. Any more, and we'll have more comments than I could possibly address!
JMJ
