(Click the links for
source material.)
Last month, during his first White House cabinet meeting,
faux-President Donald J. Trump claimed to have accomplished more than any other
president – aside from Franklin D. Roosevelt – during his first six months in
office.
“Never has there been a president, with few exceptions…who
has passed more legislation and who has done more things than what we’ve done,”
Trump proclaimed. Raise your hand if you think that was true.
In fact, through the end of June, Trump has signed 42 bills,
according to the White House web site. I admit I don’t know how that number
compares with all other presidents, but in terms of what he has signed as opposed to just how many, there doesn’t seem to be a whole lot there. I couldn’t
find a single piece of significant legislation that Trump has signed into law.
Not. One. Single. Bill.
So let’s take a look:
* First off, of the 42 bills Trump has signed so far, 14 of
them (a full one-third) simply overturn rules that were implemented during the
Obama administration. To me, the most damaging are the ones that allow the
dumping of mine waste into streams and the killing of hibernating bears and
wolves in Alaska, and the ones that no longer protect the privacy of broadband
customers or require financial advisers to put consumers' best interests ahead
of their own.
Those bills are significant in their own right, but don’t
rise to the level of health care, tax reform, infrastructure repair or border
security – Trump’s main campaign promises.
* Three of the other bills he signed appointed members to the
Smithsonian Institution’s Board of Regents.
* Two of them approved new names for Veterans Administration
clinics in Butler County, Pa., and Pago Pago, American Samoa. For the record,
the Samoan facility will now be known as the Faleomavaega Eni Fa'aua'a Hunkin
VA Clinic. I knew you’d want to know.
* One bill recognizes Vietnam War veterans as, well, veterans
of the Vietnam War, and tells us to wave the flag in their honor. I didn’t need
the president to point this out to me.
* Another bill authorizes the Department Homeland Security to
defend our food supply from terrorists. That’s OK by me, I guess, although I didn’t see
any details on how they intend to do that.
* One names a courthouse in Tennessee after “Law and Order”
actor and former Congressman Fred Thompson, and two others were passed to
encourage women to become entrepreneurs and seek jobs with NASA.
That’s 24 of the 42 so far. See any blockbusters anywhere?
* Speaking of NASA, another bill reaffirms support for our
space program, including the International Space Station, and mentions
something about a mission to Mars. Just what we need right now.
* And then there’s H.R. 534, the “U.S. Wants to Compete for a
World Expo Act.” This bill signed by Trump would require the Secretary of State
“to take such actions as may be necessary for the United States to rejoin the
Bureau of International Expositions...to promote domestic job creation, global
branding and tourism to the United States.” It sounds like Trump wants to bring
back the New York World’s Fair.
How much do you want to bet that any “expo” coming to
America right now would be branded with the Trump family logo and somehow involve Trump
hotels and a golf course or two? The bill also enables the Secretary of State to accept
private contributions for this purpose. What could possibly go wrong?
* There’s also a bill that protects whistle-blowers in the Department
of Veterans Affairs, one relating to veterans’ health care and one approving
the location for a memorial to honor veterans of the Gulf wars Desert Storm and
Desert Shield.
* There are bills praising cops as heroes and one pertaining to their
benefits, a couple extending appropriations for 2017 and one that claims to
improve our weather forecasting. Can’t wait to see how that one works out since
forecasts are wrong at least half the time.
* The first bill Trump signed on Inauguration Day was a waiver
to allow Mad Dog Mattis to serve as Secretary of Defense, even though it’s been
less than seven years since he retired from active duty in the Armed Forces.
* But my favorite bill – by far – is the “Follow the Rules Act,”
signed by Trump on June 14. This is word-for-word the way the bill is explained
on the White House web site: “This bill
extends the prohibition against a person taking, failing to take, or
threatening to take or fail to take a personnel action against any employee or
applicant for employment for refusing to obey an order that would require the
individual to violate a law to personnel actions against such an individual for
refusing to obey an order that would violate a rule or regulation.”
Say what? It might as well have read “argle bargle, argle bargle, argle bargle....” If you can understand what that bill said, you should run for
Congress.
To me, this is Donald J. Trump’s crowning achievement thus far.
He has managed to sign a bill into law that abuses the English language even worse
than one of his speeches. There is no way in hell he knows what he signed with
this one, and, probably, neither does anybody else.
So in conclusion, I congratulate you, Mr. Trump, for your monumental
accomplishments. In your first six months as president, while failing to push
through any of your legislative agenda, you have managed to sign 42 bills, most
of which really don’t do a damned thing, and one of which can’t even be read out loud with a straight face.
Franklin D. Roosevelt would certainly be proud.
* * *
Here are three sources if you want to read more about signed
legislation to date.
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