Report Card on President Trump’s First 12 Days

Hate him or love him, you must admit that President Trump has been working overtime to do the things he believes will make this country great again. In his first 11 days, he has signed more executive actions that any other president in modern history. In addition, he rounded out his cabinet, held meetings with business and union leaders, spent hours in person or on the phone with world leaders and gave us a Supreme Court nominee.

President’s can’t make law. Therefore, Trump will have to depend on Congress to see that his major policy proposals become reality. However, presidents have wide discretion how our laws are implemented and many of his moves have already changed the status quo.

Some initial actions are perfunctory and done by every president. Therefore, for this report card I am focusing only on those that have a direct bearing on policy.

Cabinet Picks — Tells us a lot about how serious a president is about keeping his campaign promises. Trump’s picks, unlike Obama’s policy wonks, have real world experience. They have achieved tremendous success and are willing to give the agencies they run the benefit of that experience. Others such as Jeff Sessions and Betsy DeVos have spent years working to advance the policies on which Trump campaigned.

Grade A+

Executive Order 13765 — Minimizes the economic effects of Obamacare by directing federal agencies to give states, insurance companies and consumers the maximum amount of flexibility in complying with the law. Trump is laying down a marker that he intends to see Obamacare repealed and replaced.

Grade A

Presidential Memorandum: Withdrawal from the Trans Pacific Partnership — Trump is making good on his promise to negotiate trade deals to make sure they are both fair and profitable.

Grade A

Presidential Memorandum: Mexico City Policy — Trump not only reimplemented the policy put in place by President Reagan that prevents our tax money from going to overseas family planning agencies that perform abortions, he expanded it.

Grade A+

Presidential Memorandums on the Keystone and Dakota Access Pipelines — Ordered agencies involved to expedite these projects. Also ordered the Department of Commerce to review ways to mandate the use of American-made steel in all pipeline projects in the U.S.

Grade A+

Executive Order 13766 — Expedited Environmental Reviews for Infrastructure Projects. Remember all those “shovel-ready” jobs that Obama promised? By the time they saw the light of day they were loaded down with millions of dollars of bureaucratic waste.

Grade A

Presidential Memorandum: Streamlining Permitting and Reducing Regulatory Burdens for Domestic Manufacturing — The first step to bringing manufacturing back to the U.S.

Grade A+

Executive Order 13767: Border Security and Immigration Enforcement Improvements —

Build the wall and hire more border security officers.

Grade A+

Executive Order 13768: Enhancing Public Safety in the Interior — Cuts off federal funds to Sanctuary Cities and gives immigrations officers the authority to deport any noncitizen judged to be a threat to pubic safety.

Grade A+

Executive Order: Protecting the Nation From Foreign Terrorist Entry Into The United States — Immediate travel ban for the seven countries judged to be most dangerous for 90 days until we can reform the vetting process. Despite what you may have heard, the threat from refugees is real. Since September 11, 2001, at least 40 people admitted to the U.S. as refugees have been implicated in terrorism. http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2016/08/10/jeff-sessions-highlights-20-vetted-terrorist-refugees-obama-ramps-admissions-terror-hot-spots/ Trump was criticized for not giving our security agencies time to thoroughly brief all those involved with implementing this order. However, this would have leaked and given those intent on doing us harm an opportunity to sneak in before the ban. There was no perfect way to do this without inconveniencing the people affected by the ban.

Grade B

National Security Presidential Memorandum 1: Rebuilding the U.S. Armed Forces —Pentagon and Office of Management and Budget are to come up with a plan to bolster the military, examine our nuclear arsenal and missile-defense capabilities.

Grade A

National Security Presidential Memorandum 3 — Plan to Defeat ISIS to be delivered in 30 days

Grade A

Executive Order: Reducing Regulation and Controlling Regulatory Costs — Requires agencies to rescind two regulations for every new one. Total cost of all new regulations for 2017, including those repealed, to be 0.

Grade A+

The Nomination of Judge Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court — Another campaign promise delivered. He picked this nominee from the list he presented to the voters which he compiled with the help of the Federalist Society. Indications are that Judge Gorsuch is a strict constructionist in the mold of Antonin Scalia but only time will tell.

Grade Incomplete

The Deplorables Versus the Nasties

Last weekend was a demonstration of strength by the Deplorables, who turned out for the inauguration, and the Nasties, who marched on Saturday.

The Deplorables got their name from Hillary Clinton. On September 11, the Democrat presidential nominee said, “To just be grossly generalistic, you can put half of Trump supporters into what I call the basket of deplorables. Right? Racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamaphobic, you name it.”

The Nasties came from a comment Donald Trump made to characterize Hillary Clinton — not her supporters —during the last presidential debate. Clinton spoke of her plan to bring down the deficit by taxing the rich. She then made a snarky comment that Trump would find a way to get out of paying his fair share. That drew his ire.

Both sides, in this hotly contested political contest, in turn, adopted the epithets thrown by these opposing candidates during a knock-down, drag-out campaign and wore them like a badge of honor. Continue reading “The Deplorables Versus the Nasties” →

Trump Ties Himself in Knots on “60 Minutes”

In the third presidential debate I found myself screaming at Donald Trump when he addressed Chris Wallace’s questions regarding his Supreme Court appointments.

Trump, I assumed, fell into the litmus test trap when he answered Wallace’s first question on gun rights. Trump said, “We are going to appoint justices that will feel very strongly about the Second Amendment.”

Trump threw out a another litmus test when Wallace then asked, “Do you want the court, including the justices that you will name, to overturn Roe v. Wade, which includes, in fact, states a woman’s right to abortion?” Continue reading “Trump Ties Himself in Knots on “60 Minutes”” →

Mother Teresa, Hillary and You

Here in this country we spend over a trillion dollars a year on poverty programs. Over 45 million people in the United States are classified as “poor.” However, most of our citizens have never seen real poverty or know what it is. My eyes were opened when I visited Haiti in 1968, and again in 1985, when I visited India, the country adopted by Mother Teresa.

Unlike Mother Teresa, I did not go to India willingly. I struggled with the Lord for weeks before I agreed to make that journey in order to help Siloam International, now Childcare Worldwide, with a fundraising film. That was a life-changing event for me.

Three years later I had an opportunity to meet Mother Teresa and pray with her. The woman, who was canonized by the Catholic Church Sunday, went to St. Louis, Missouri, to speak to the annual conference of the Presbyterian Church USA about its pro-abortion stance. She was invited by Presbyterians Pro-Life, a small group of reformers seeking to bring the denomination back to its biblical roots.

PPL is a dedicated group. It didn’t have any money but she came anyway because, in her words, “As to my calling I belong to the world. As to my heart, I belong entirely to the heart of Jesus.” Continue reading “Mother Teresa, Hillary and You” →

Supremes Move Back Alley to Main Street

I remember it as though it were yesterday. I developed a fever and stomach cramps. Assuming it was the flu, I went to bed to sleep it off. When my husband came home and found me with a temperature of over 103 degrees, he insisted on taking me to the doctor despite my objections.

Upon examination, my doctor determined I had a dangerous infection and left a waiting room full of patients to accompany us to the hospital while his staff called ahead. Once there, I was immediately placed in a room, where my own doctor ran tests and administered emergency treatment himself without waiting for the hospital staff to determine my condition or be brought up to speed. I later learned that these measures likely saved my life. Continue reading “Supremes Move Back Alley to Main Street” →

The State of the Family

In his State of the Union address Tuesday, President Obama, once again, told us that “the state of the union is strong.” Our citizens know differently. Here’s what Obama didn’t tell you:

The unemployment rate may be down, but the labor participation rate is a paltry 62.6 percent. It is still stuck at a 38 year low.
The average hourly pay also is stuck, sliding one cent last month to $25.24. That left the growth of average pay at 2.5 percent for the year, well below the 3.5 percent economists consider healthy.
The same goes for health care. The percentage of adults without coverage remains at around 12%. Meanwhile, Obamacare premiums skyrocketed an average of 7.5%.
The Dow Jones industrial average, faded by 2.2 percent, its first down year since 2008.

Armed with this knowledge, I was much more interested in Monday night’s report on the “State of the Family” delivered by Tony Perkins at the Family Research Council Continue reading “The State of the Family” →

Obama Shills for Domestic Terrorists (Bypass Him and Defund Planned Parenthood Now!)

This week, Congress will present President Obama with a bill to fund the government through the remaining fiscal year and Obama will veto it. Why? Because the bill defunds the nation’s biggest domestic terrorist, Planned Parenthood, which mercilessly kills over 300,000 babies a year and sells their body parts.

Yes, Obama would rather shut down the government than cut off federal funds to one of the most immoral organizations on the planet.

Right on cue, USA Today published a poll conducted with Suffolk University to show that most Americans are opposed, 58% to 33%, to shutting off Planned Parenthood’s federal money spigot. However, there are no links to give us a cue as to how this question was framed. Surprise, Surprise! Continue reading “Obama Shills for Domestic Terrorists (Bypass Him and Defund Planned Parenthood Now!)” →