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Two weeks ago, President Trump promised to agree to a bipartisan deal that would protect dreamers (undocumented immigrants brought to the U.S. as children). Yet when that deal was presented to him he balked, complaining of the shi*hole countries where these immigrants come from. On Friday he would not agree to a plan presented by Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer leading to a weekend government shutdown, which is unprecedented when one party controls both the executive and legislative branches. While financial markets have responded well to Trump other nations have not and the damage to American credibility remains to be determined.
Discussion Questions
1. Are Senate Republican, Senate Democrats, the President, or some combination of them to blame for the recent government shutdown?
2. Should Trump be credited for the growth of the economy over the past year or should he be criticized for potential damage to American international credibility?
3. What do you expect that Trump may say about the budget and foreign policy in next week's State of the Union address?
3 comments:
First of all, I do think that a combination of them are to blame for the recent government shutdown because I believe that there needs to be compromise in order for a government to be successful. However, in recent years as parties have become extremely polarized, compromise has not been likely among politicians in Congress. So, I believe that all of the parties are to blame as they could not compromise in order to avoid a government shutdown. Also, I believe that Trump should be criticized for potential damage to American international credibility as many nations have publicly spoke out against Trump. For example, after Trump made the shithole countries reference, and said he wanted more people from countries like Norway, many people on Twitter said that no one would want to move to the US from Norway. Here is an example of one of the tweets: http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2018/01/12/05/480A50E200000578-5261545-image-a-58_1515734799603.jpg
Which basically says that before anyone would want to move to the US, the US would need to change or enact new legislation.
In addition to what Isabela said, I would like to say that all of America's recent economic success isn't necessarily due to Trump (as highlighted by a recent article in the Economist, with comments such as "Has Mr Trump kept his promise to revive American manufacturing, mining and the like? A more probable explanation is that he came to office just as America began to run out of willing workers to fill all of its job vacancies. As unemployment has fallen, from over 6% in mid-2014 to 4.1% today, wage growth has gradually picked up." and " Yet his apparent economic success to date mostly reflects fortunate timing.") The article is slightly dated, however, coming from mid November of last year. However, as the article pointed out, as long as the Economy is doing well, he will take credit, whether or not it is his to take (I don't know enough to say it isn't his credit to take, only that it might be fortunate timing and leftover work from Obama, as the article commented). Moreover, I think Trump will only boast of his "success" in the State of the Union Address, and take shots at others in the Government, Media, and around the world. I wouldn't be surprised if it's "not pretty," but if he manages to give a halfway decent speech without offending/insulting/attacking and just sticks to boasting and bragging, even if it's false, I would think that is a win (which goes to show how ridiculous this man is).
I don't really expect Trump to address these true issues of immigration in his State of the Union address, and instead he'll try to divert these issues and talk about the current state of the economy or something of the sort. I find it interesting that he takes more of a stance on Twitter than he does on national television, and this sort of shenanigans where he goes back on his word or doubles down on his statements can be viewed as refreshing to those who want to see a president who doesn't play the politics game, but in reality it's destroying American politics, and especially the controversial issues like immigration which aren't directly linked to the economy.
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