Donald Trump’s swamp gas
While the current administration will go down in history for a number of negative reasons, there are a few things that Donald Trump has been proficient at over the past sixteen months. In less than a year and a half, Trump has already told more than three thousand lies, and that number is climbing higher by the day. Another aspect of the administration that continues to rack up points is the incredibly high rate of turnover. People have been fleeing the administration in droves for a multitude of reasons. However none of those seem to be inexperience, criminal activity, or just being unqualified for the position; those things are fine with Trump. The excessive lies, combined with unprecedented turnover, might be part of the reason for Trump’s incredibly high number of campaign promises that he has either been unable to achieve or simply never even planned to try in the first place.
One example of Trump’s lies, broken promises, and turnover can be observed in the Department of Health and Human Services. When Trump and the Republicans were unable to steal healthcare from millions of Americans, also known as their promise to repeal and replace the ACA, Trump fired Tom Price, the Secretary of Health and Human Services. Following the departure of Price, Trump chose Alex Azar to fill the gap left by Price’s departure. Since Azar’s Senate confirmation four months ago, we haven’t heard much about him. That changed recently when Azar rolled out his plan to decrease drug prices. While Trump promised during the campaign that he would greatly decrease the cost of prescription drugs and fight the pharmaceutical industry, we now see, as most suspected, that Trump was lying and is again putting big business interests ahead of American citizens.
Trump previously promised to allow Medicare to directly negotiate drug prices while also allowing the importation of drugs from other countries. Of course that upset drug companies and with a few conversations they were able to convince Trump to put their interests first. When critics pointed out the fact that Trump lied and this would not do anything close to what was promised, Azar sounded like Trump, stating “They can’t read and they can’t listen and they’re not understanding.” Following the rollout of this plan, stock prices for drug companies actually increased, showing how insiders and investors believe this will not stop the companies from making excessive money at the cost of working families.
While none of this is surprising, and we’ve all become accustomed to expecting the worst from Trump and this administration, at least these are mostly things that can be repaired. The part that will hurt Trump the most will be having to watch his administration labeled as the worst in American history, as America fixes all the terrible things they did, and he won’t even be able to tweet about it as he sits in his prison cell for the rest of his life.
I’m a ceramic engineer living in Central New York, avid sports fan but find myself more interested in politics lately.