Friday, November 11, 2016

Zero Hedge — Trump Reveals Policy Goals: "Building That Wall", End "War On Coal", Repeal Obamacare, Dismantle Dodd-Frank

On his transition website GreatAgain.gov, the Trump team has laid out the framework of his initial policies with policies focused i) on American Security including as Defense and National security, Immigration Reform and Building That Wall, and Energy Independence; ii) Getting America Back to Work Again including Tax Reform; Regulatory Reform; Trade Reform; Education; Transportation & Infrastructure and Financial Services Reform; and iii) Government for the people including Healthcare Reform (Obamacare), Veterans Administration Reform and Protecting Americans' Constitutional Rights.
The key highlights include:
Zero Hedge
Trump Reveals Policy Goals: "Building That Wall", End "War On Coal", Repeal Obamacare, Dismantle Dodd-Frank
Submitted by Tyler Durden

27 comments:

Ignacio said...

The love on coal makes zero sense, has he or any of his close guys any vested interests?

With gas so cheap coal makes zero sense, even for climatic change deniers.

John said...

Ignacio, quite right. Coal makes no economic sense. Fracking, yes, but that brings in other questions about who'll invest in it when the Saudis are willing to drop the price of oil to fuck the frackers. And remember when the Saudis launched their war on the frackers, the US establishment supported the Saudis, not the frackers.

I think on another thread it was Malmo who said that Trump is so thoroughly associated with building the wall that not building it would significantly undermine him: it is the one policy everyone can name, and it is the one policy he cannot get out of, having made it his flagship policy, other than those detailed policy proposals of making everything "great" and "terrific".

I can see this being a real problem. Mexico will not pay for the wall. End of story. Trump will row back on this, in the same way that the Muslim ban has now disappeared from his website. Well, perhaps Americans can be persuaded that as long as the wall is built, who cares who pays for it. Trump therefore faces no humiliation in that. But the question now becomes, will it be built?

As for NAFTA, talk about digging a hole for himself. And what will his attitude be when the Pentagon, State and all the National Security agencies explain that TPP is a necessary geopolitical strategy for containing China? These things are going to be impossible to achieve. Perhaps he'll need one of those diversionary wars to deflect attention from the fact that he cannot achieve any of his main commitments. I suppose we'll hear a lot about Iran's non-existent nuclear weapons programme on the verge of creating some diabolical super weapon.



Matt Franko said...

Coal costs are up due to environmental "regulations!"... ie remove the "regulations!" then the cost comes down and we can better "compete!" with China....

Ryan Harris said...

Coal isn't about the energy. It is symbolic of the left's quixotic pursuit of ideology without regard to impact on people. It's why Trump got elected figuratively and literally. The states he won by the slimmest of margins were coal producing states.

When Obama declared he would bankrupt every coal mining company in the country to make his climate catastrophist $upporters happy, he did it through executive order. But he made no effort, zero, to provide anything for the rural peoples lives he ruined. Millions of people in communities in Wyoming, West Virginia, Kentucky, Pennsylvania, Montana, Texas, Indiana, and Ohio lost their livelihoods. Barely a story in the media. But those voters turned out for Trump. Obviously Trump's policies suck but they aren't designed to pump up San Fran contributors at the expense of Wyoming.

If you want to get rid of coal for your ideological models, great, what are you going to do to help those regions destroyed with new economic development? This is what Democracy is supposed to do, pragmatism. My problem is that GOP congress stood by and did nothing while Obama hatched his evil plan.

Matt Franko said...

Well Ryan those were Democrat states at that time...

West Virginia was heavy Democrat, Virginia, Pennsylvania, etc...

Priebus was on Hannity last night and explained how the GOP has been in those states for the last 4 years getting people to change party registrations.... and then got the new registrants to get out and vote this week... very pragmatic approach...

Matt Franko said...

Those people like Preibus do it for a living...

Ryan Harris said...

Good point, Matt. The GOP needs to do more than just reverse the coal bankrupting plan to make their new found support enduring they need to actually provide economic development for the region.

The reason San Francisco, Seattle and DC flourish is because it is home to national laboratories, universities, military, space and intelligence other bureaucratic people and investment that create most of the innovation and value in our economy. The tech companies steal the basic tech, apply it, and call it their own.

GOP needs to apply the process to districts and make sure the people know they are delivering on their behalf.

Tom Hickey said...

China has huge coal reserves and has decided to phase out coal to control pollution, which is a huge problem there. People and the environment win, but only if unemployment is avoided. Chinese leaders have promised to repurpose laid off workers during the transition period.

Matt Franko said...

They probably havent hacked our clean coal technology yet Tom..

Also, it looked for a while that we were phasing out coal so then of course those western wannabes will want to do that too...

Now that we are going back to coal now they are going to do that too...

Joe said...

Honestly the wall doesn't bother me, it's one of the least bad ideas on the right. Probably impossible now with r's holding both houses of congress, but liberals should have used it as a bargaining chip. We'll give you the wall if you give us single payer or a debt jubilee. Net immigration from the southern border is zero anyways, so what difference is a wall going to make?

Tom Hickey said...

The wall is purely symbolic and Trump knows this since he understands persuasion. It is a visual symbol of nationalism versus internationalism and globalism.

Trump used the wall as a symbol very effectively, and the opposition never understood the cognitive-affective basis or it or his use of it in persuasion.

It had to be countered cognitively-affectively to win the persuasion game in this area in which control of one's borders and immigration is key.

The Democrats get a fail on this.

Ryan Harris said...

And the Chinese will do it in phases over many years.

Matt Franko said...

"We'll give you the wall if you give us single payer or a debt jubilee. "


Democrats are the biggest deficit hawks there are... ??????

Shouldnt project your knowledge onto biased others that do not have your knowledge...

These people are all biased against debt/deficits....

Joe said...

The left has made a huge mistake with this push for integration and erosion of national sovereignty. (Along the way completely abandoning any semblance of what the left used to stand for, becoming right wingers)

Quite simply: it is not racist/bigoted/xenophobic/what-fucking-ever-ism to want to protect your culture and control your own borders.

Furthermore I don't think integration among nations (a la EU) is even desirable. And it's undeniable that it's been a failure so far. Cooperation yes, integration no. Imo.

Joe said...

Matt, yeah, I agree with you there, the Democrats are not even close to being leftist/progressives/liberals or whatever you want to call them. The context of the Democratic party is so fucked up as to make my point beyond being even thinkable for them.

lastgreek said...

They probably havent hacked our clean coal technology yet Tom..

Maybe because it doesn't exist. And why bother with coal when there is no demand for it :)

http://ieefa.org/coal-ports/

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OK, some Friday humour ...

Shower Thoughts ‏@ShowersIdeas 2h

I wonder if the receptionist at the sperm bank has ever used the phrase “Thanks for coming”.








Joe said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Malmo's Ghost said...

I haven't had my nightly cocktails yet so I'm still quite lucid. I'm going to make another prediction given I'm on a roll of late: Trump has to build the wall. HE WILL BUILD THE WALL. He has no choice. If he doesn't get it done he will be viewed as a colossal failure. Once the wall is built he will then amnesty all undocumented people who aren't security risks. There will be a virtual deportation meaning that they will not be recognized in any way as citizens and will have to get in line "symbolically", but most will remain in the USA. They will be in a holding pattern until vetted. I predict virtually all illegals (criminals excluded) will be granted citizenship. I also think there will be a moratorium on any NEW immigration for several years.

Malmo's Ghost said...

I want to clarify. Once the building of the wall commences, virtual amnesty will begin. By the time the wall is completed amnesty will be mostly enacted.

lastgreek said...

The wall will be a graffiti artist's dream come true ;)

Ignacio said...

The wall is not such a big deal as long as he delivers on the economic front. No one on the opposition is going to use a non-built wall against him in 4 years.

Yeah sure we will see some news about it and some people making fun of it in some years, but is not going to be a decisive factor in the future, it wasn't either in this elections just on the beginning to gain the support of the far right to compete against the other GOP clowns which were on the race.

My bet has always been that Trump would become very moderate if he reached the presidency and would try to implement an oldschool Keynesian economic policy. If that works to improve the situation of the economy for the majority no one will remember the wall in 4 years, whether he manages to win the battle against "his" own party and the opposition is the question now.

Peter Pan said...

Maybe he'll be convinced to "save" money and build a fence.

Matt Franko said...

He's going to put a xaction fee on USD transfers to Mexican accounts to pay for the wall... 10s of $B xfered to Mexican accounts from US accounts every year.... take 1% and its paid for in one year or so....

lastgreek said...

Maybe he'll be convinced to "save" money and build a fence.

I think they already have a fence, Bob.

Peter Pan said...

Even more savings!
Fence is incomplete in remote areas, which is as it should be.

The Rombach Report said...

Building a wall along the U.S. southern border is a bad idea because it will an eyesore, and will consume labor, materials, and technology that could be better allocated to more productive endeavors. Moreover, some day a wall might be used to keep Americans in. Think Berlin Wall.

Instead of building a wall, the U.S. should build a human fence by bringing home 85,000 troops currently stationed in Germany, Japan, South Korea and elsewhere, and have them patrol the U.S. southern border. They can be the eyes, ears, and boots on the ground. Build 150 battalion sized barracks from Corpus Christi, Texas to San Diego, California and have border troops move from one barracks outpost to the next and in that way over time become familiar with the full length of the border and the communities and cultural mix that reside there.

The Rombach Report said...
This comment has been removed by the author.