I was sitting at home trying to decide what I was going to do my column on, so I turned on the TV to my usual stations––CNN, MSNBC and FOX News. It was amazing, all the news was about President Donald Trump’s executive orders.
Wow, it was like Showtime at the Apollo, except it was President Trump and his executive orders. There were thousands of protestors in just about every city, at just about every major airport. People of all races.
All presidents have given executive orders, but President Trump has brought it to an all time low, or high, depending on your perspective. He has created total chaos.
Since he took office, he has signed 17 executive orders with the most controversial one being No. 14: Blocking Refugees and all visitors from seven Arab countries, Iraq, Iran, Syria, Libya, Sudan, Somalia and Yemen, from entering the U.S.
I agree that we need to take a closer look at who we allow into our country, we have enough crazies born and raised here; but most of the people blocked had already been vetted by the government. For instance, there were people who worked with the U.S. military as interpreters and had been approved, but were now blocked due to the order. One such person was freed and allowed in as a result of an ACLU suit; had it not gone that way, he otherwise may have been sent back to Iraq to a sure death. There are still many others awaiting their fate.
It wasn’t necessarily what was done, but how it was done. It was a very tacky Trump-type of decision made with no study, investigation or planning behind it; a spur of the moment decision made as though there was no government vetting before. The mentality is that unless he does it, it hasn’t been done properly.
According to most experts, all these people had been vetted during a two-year, or more, process before they received their green card. Even Trump stated in his campaign that President Obama had deported more people than any other president. So, he wasn’t just letting everybody in nor was he allowing everybody to stay.
Can you imagine being on your way home to your family, when all of a sudden your arrested and put in a holding area for an indefinite time, all this after previously being cleared by the government? No phone calls allowed and not being listed so your family can’t confirm you are there. Thank God some governors are standing up to him and saying not in my state.
The border wall was what the candidate Trump promised to the American people and it was executive order No. 12. He said the wall is going to be built, separating the U.S. from Mexico, and that Mexico was going to pay for it. Well, last week, the Mexican president told Trump where to stick it. If the wall is built, it’s going to cost the taxpayers billions and will not make the U.S. any safer. In order No. 15, he gave the Joint Chiefs of Staff 30 days to devise a plan to defeat Isis. I wish him luck on that one.
The Affordable Care Act roll back was order No. 1. But a strange thing happened in the process of rolling it back. The Republicans in the Senate and House are still working on how to kill it, but are realizing that the American people are demanding that something be put in its place. It will cost the U.S. trillions to replace it, and, more importantly, hundreds, or more, will die and even more will live a life of pain and suffering if they don’t replace it with something. What really needs to be done is that they keep the positive parts of the plan, and simply improve or replace the negatives. Maybe they should talk to more doctors, patients and others who work in the health field, instead of just depending on politicians’ points of view. Take the politics out of it. Do it for the country, do it for the people. Sorry, I forgot that Party is everything.
The executive orders so far:
17. Lobbyist bans.
16. Reorganizing the top security councils.
15. Plan to fight ISIS.
14. Blocking refugees and all visitors from some countries.
13. Reshaping the military.
12. Border wall.
11. Deportations and sanctuary cities
10. Review manufacturing regulations.
9. American steel in pipelines.
8. Speeding up environmental reviews for all priority infrastructure.
7+6. Speeding approval of Dakota Access and Keystone Oil Pipelines.
5. Federal hiring freeze.
4. TPP
3. Abortion
2. Regulation freeze.
1. ACA rollback.
(Ulish Carter is the managing editor of the New Pittsburgh Courier.)
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