Let’s hope Trump’s plans to steal the election are as effective as his legislative agenda
Nothing like saying the quiet part out loud.
But here’s the good news: Trump’s track record in the White House suggests that when he says he’s going to do something, it is unlikely to happen.
Trump has said repeatedly he would deliver the “best” and “most tremendous” economy any of us ever experienced. Instead, thanks in part to his administration’s abysmal response to the coronavirus pandemic, the nation has experienced the highest unemployment rate since the Great Depression. Small businesses, a sector Trump claims to champion, are undergoing a mass-extinction event. Lines at food banks extend for miles. Expanded unemployment benefits expired long ago, and the funding for the temporary $300-a-week extension Trump authorized in August is on the verge of running out. The Paycheck Protection Program is no more. Republicans in Congress, who are apparently capable of fast-tracking a Supreme Court nomination, show no urgency when it comes to offering further economic stimulus.
Trump’s apparent plan to solve all this? Jawbone Americans into believing the economy is doing just great, much the way he once convinced them he was an outstanding entrepreneurial genius when, in fact, he inherited his fortune and his own businesses declared bankruptcy more than half a dozen times. Trump and members of his administration are still talking up a never-happened “V-shaped” recovery. If that’s not good enough, there’s always 2021. “Next year is going to be, I think, the best economic year in the history of our country,” he said this week at a rally in Jacksonville, Fla.
Then there is Trump on health-care reform. On Thursday, Trump finally delivered on his supposed replacement for the Affordable Care Act, something he’s promised to do “immediately” since before he was elected. It was — surprise! — beyond less than advertised.
What’s his scheme for replacing the ACA’s popular provision that forbids insurers to deny coverage to people with preexisting conditions? An empty executive order declaring it is the “official policy of the United States government” to protect these people — even as his administration actively supports a lawsuit, soon to come before the Supreme Court, that seeks to put the kibosh on the ACA, including preexisting coverage. His latest plan for surprise medical bills? Direct his administration to begin devising regulations next year if Congress hasn’t passed legislation tackling the problem by then.
As for Trump’s sudden promise to send $200 cards to Americans on Medicare to spend on prescription drugs? Not only does no one seem to know where the money to do this really exists — the plan fails to address the underlying problem of skyrocketing drug costs, and it doesn’t do a darn thing for the millions of Americans not eligible for Medicare.
That’s hardly a surprise. Trump’s track record on his promise to deliver better health care for Americans while lowering what they pay for it is all but nonexistent. He has repeatedly claimed he’s reduced pharmaceutical costs, when, in fact, costs for the vast majority of prescription drugs continue to go up at rates well in excess of inflation. If anything, his administration has made the problem worse. He’s allowed insurers to sell consumers cheap, inadequate short-term health-care plans, the kind that come with loopholes that all too often leave people thousands of dollars in debt.
I’m not arguing that it’s impossible that Trump will steal the election. The fact that he is trying to set up the possibility that he will do so is horrifying in and of itself. But Trump’s a rank incompetent, all but incapable of delivering on almost anything he says he will do, be it business success or a substantive legislative agenda. There’s no small irony in the fact that our republic’s best defense against Trump might well be Trump himself.
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