A disadvantage with Donald Trump not having any experience in public service — be it school board, city commission, or a military obligation — prior to being elected president of the United States is that he has not a clue as to what it means to have the greater good, and not personal gain, as the goal.
This me-first mentality creates problems for the United States when it tries to work as a partner with other countries in efforts to maintain peace, effect trade, combat disease, poverty and hunger, and address climate change.
As public servants quickly learn, goals can be more adequately and equitably met when members work as a team and let go of their personal agendas.
Unfortunately, with our president, everything is personal, which makes him leery of consensus-building tactics such as NATO, the Trans-Pacific Partnership or the Paris agreement in which 194 countries have pledged to fight global warming.
TRUMP’S campaign to “Make America Great Again” will not work if it unravels the close-knit relationships we have built around the world. We do not live in isolation, as any Kansas farmer who depends on the overseas exports of his crops will tell you.
Fighting terrorism can be better accomplished when allies work together, not individually.
Making a difference to carbon emissions can happen only when every country is on board. As one of the top two polluters in the world — second to China — the United States, if anyone, should feel obligated to participate in the accord. Instead, President Trump thumbs his nose at the agreement, holding out that climate change is a hoax.
DOMESTICALLY, Trump’s health care and tax plans work against the poor and the middle class. A tax cut for the wealthy will not create more jobs, as we in Kansas know from personal experience. Trump’s plan to cut farm subsidies by 55 percent and eliminate insurance coverage for lost revenue when crop prices fall would be catastrophic to us here in rural America. But for Trump, it’s all about the numbers by “saving” $37 billion over 10 years.
We could also tell D.C. that the tax cuts would add trillions to our federal deficit and as a result drive up interest rates in our need to service that debt.
Tax cuts only work when you can afford them.
As for health care, Trump campaigned to provide it “for everyone.” Now that he’s president, the Affordable Health Care Act stands to cut 24 million from its rolls, raise premiums and shrink offerings including birth control, screenings, and for those with pre-existing medical conditions.
Both his tax and health care plans would work to further the gap between America’s haves and have-nots.
Perhaps these things will make Mr. Trump’s America great again, but then, that’s always been a pretty privileged world.
