[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 79 (Tuesday, May 15, 2018)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2658-S2659]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                          Trump Administration

  Madam President, next, I want to talk about an emerging theme from 
President Trump's Presidency, and that is his failure to deliver. For 
all the ballyhoo about the President being an effective dealmaker, a 
get-it-done business executive, President Trump has failed remarkably 
to deliver on his promises to the middle class and to the American 
people as a whole.
  While sometimes I think some folks confuse chaos for activity, the 
truth is, the President's impulsive and erratic behavior has scuttled 
bipartisan legislation, impeded progress, and prevented the middle 
class from gaining their rightful share. The rhetoric continues 
unabated, the President talks a good game, but actions and 
accomplishments in area after area after area escape him.
  President Trump, for instance, promised the American people a better 
healthcare system. He said better quality at lower prices. Premiums now 
have jumped double digits in State after State. It is clear he hasn't 
delivered on that promise.
  President Trump promised to protect Medicaid and Medicare from cuts, 
and then he proposed cutting both these programs. Just recently, the 
President backed off from a commitment to let Medicare negotiate lower 
prices for prescription drugs. When he campaigned, all the President 
would talk about, time after time, is drug prices

[[Page S2659]]

are too high, and yet the program he announced last Thursday was a 
humiliation for the President. From one end of the Nation to the other, 
they said this does nothing. In fact, the stock prices of the 
pharmaceutical industry went up as he gave his speech--no better proof 
that he wasn't doing anything.
  President Trump promised that his tax bill would be a middle-class 
miracle; instead, it is a giveaway mostly to corporations and the 
wealthy, with 80 percent going to the wealthiest people and most 
powerful corporations in America. Already we are seeing higher 
healthcare premiums and rising gas prices eat away at any meager tax 
benefit middle-class families received.
  So, to ask the question that has been asked time and time again of 
middle-class people, ``Are you better off today than the day President 
Trump became President,'' most people are not because so many costs are 
going up and so many promises that President Trump made are not being 
fulfilled. The President seems to think rhetoric is in one place and 
action is in another and the twain never meet. So he talks a good game 
and acts on behalf of the powerful and special interests that hurt the 
middle class.
  Here is another one. What about infrastructure? President Trump 
promised the Nation a $1 trillion infrastructure bill to build gleaming 
new roads, bridges, and tunnels. It took him over 1 year to propose a 
detailed infrastructure plan, and when he did, it wasn't even close to 
$1 trillion and has gone nowhere. One of his spokespersons said: We are 
not doing infrastructure this year. That was one of his biggest 
promises to the American people--gone.
  How about trade? Trade is an issue where the President and I mostly 
agree. As I have said, I believe I am much closer to President Trump on 
trade than either Presidents Obama or Bush. I publicly and privately 
told him as much, but now I am beginning to doubt him even on trade.
  He talks a big game on China, he promises to be tough, and yet this 
weekend, on the toughest thing he did--the thing that woke up the 
Chinese and made them think we were serious--the President backed off. 
Not only may President Trump allow China to evade the consequences of 
rapaciously stealing American intellectual property, he also pledged to 
help a Chinese telecom company guilty of violating U.S. sanctions. Even 
on trade, where the President and I mostly agree on policy, President 
Trump hasn't delivered, to the chagrin of me and millions of Americans 
who depend on fairer trade policies for jobs and income.
  Finally, what about draining the swamp? This is his big cry. That is 
all we hear on FOX News: The President wants to drain the swamp. It was 
a central campaign pledge, but what happened when the President got to 
Washington? He filled his Federal Government with industry lobbyists 
and rich executives with sprawling conflicts of interests. His Cabinet 
Secretaries have engaged in flagrant graft, enjoying luxuries on the 
taxpayers' dime.

  His administration hardly even vets its candidates. No President, at 
least in my career, has done as much to fill up the swamp as President 
Trump. If the American people look at his actions, not his rhetoric, 
the swamp has gotten much worse, and a lot of it is because of what 
President Trump did.
  Mr. President, you can't say you are draining the swamp and then have 
an administration abounding with conflicts of interests and abounding 
with people who favor the wealthy and hurt the middle class.
  Of course, there has been no ``bill of love'' for Dreamers.
  The President said he was going to stand up to the NRA. He told a 
couple of Senators that you shouldn't be afraid of them.
  And we haven't seen a check from Mexico on the border wall.
  It is a plain fact that this President talks the talk but fails time 
and time and time again to walk the walk. The Trump administration has 
left behind a trail of broken promises. There is example after example 
of this President's failing to deliver. He has dropped the ball for the 
middle class on healthcare, on trade, on prescription drugs, on 
draining the swamp, and on infrastructure. On each issue he said he 
would do something. He hasn't.
  I actually agree with a good number of President Trump's campaign 
promises. I want us to be tough on China. I want to bring more 
accountability and transparency to government. We Democrats want a 
trillion-dollar infrastructure bill, and we want to bring down the 
alarming costs of prescription drugs, but this President either lacks 
the commitment, the consistency, or the know-how to make real progress 
on any of these issues.
  That is not good enough--not for the millions of Americans who voted 
for him because they expected him to deliver or the millions who didn't 
vote for him but need him to deliver because he is President of the 
United States and the buck stops with him.
  I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will call the roll.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Young). Without objection, it is so 
ordered.