[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 163 (2017), Part 4]
[Senate]
[Page 5842]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                 THE PRESIDENT'S FIRST ONE HUNDRED DAYS

  Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, now, let's talk a little bit about the 
President's first 100 days. We are approaching the 100-day mark of the 
Trump Presidency. It is an appropriate time to take stock of what this 
President has accomplished so far. Unfortunately, it is not much.
  In the first 100 days, so many of the promises the President made to 
working families during the campaign have either been broken outright 
or remain unfulfilled.
  The President ran as a populist. I have said this to him. The 
President ran as a populist against both the Democratic and the 
Republican establishments, promising to stick up for the American 
worker. He talked like a different kind of Republican who might be 
willing to work with Democrats, particularly on issues like trade or 
infrastructure. Instead, the President has spent the first 100 days 
governing from the far right on behalf of the powerful and the special 
interests he once campaigned against, breaking his promise to be a 
President for the American worker--the forgotten men and women, as he 
called them. It sure didn't take long for the President to forget them 
too.
  The President has broken promises or has yet to fulfill them in areas 
that matter to so many of his voters and to so many Americans, whether 
they voted for him or not. He promised he would drain the swamp, right? 
He talked about it over and over again. He promised he would drain the 
swamp, but instead he has filled his Cabinet with billionaires and 
bankers. And listen to this: He has given out secret waivers that allow 
lobbyists to work in his administration on the very issues they 
previously lobbied on. That is not draining the swamp. That is filling 
it up to the brim, going far beyond what others have done.
  He said he would deliver better healthcare that would cost less and 
provide more benefits. At one point, he said we are going to give 
healthcare to everybody, but his bill, TrumpCare, does the exact 
opposite, providing fewer benefits at higher costs, all to finance a 
massive tax break for the wealthy.
  He promised a $1 trillion infrastructure bill. We Democrats sent him 
our proposal--a $1 trillion infrastructure bill, taking the number he 
talked about in the campaign--over a month ago. We haven't seen any 
proposal or gotten any response from the President.
  The President promised he would be tough on trade, outsourcing, and 
jobs. He promised he would label China a currency manipulator and fight 
back against their rapacious trade policies which robbed America of 
millions of jobs and cost trillions of dollars of our wealth. He hasn't 
done that either.
  The 2018 budget he proposed is a dagger to the heart of the middle 
class, cutting some of the programs that matter to the middle class 
most, including transportation, education, and scientific research.
  So as we head into the 100-day mark, Democrats are going to hold the 
President accountable for the promises he made to working-class voters. 
We obviously disagreed with a lot of what he said in the campaign, but 
he made a number of promises to working-class voters that we could have 
helped him to accomplish. Unfortunately, he has abandoned those 
promises in favor of a hard-right, special interest agenda.
  We can work together, but only if President Trump and Republicans 
actually seek Democratic input and are willing to compromise. Right now 
it seems the President's idea of compromise is never talk to Democrats, 
put forward his own Republican proposal, and pressure us to support it; 
never talk to Democrats, that is, about the issues he is moving 
forward. I have talked to him, but it is never on the issues that are 
before us. That is not the way our politics have ever worked. Unless 
the President's approach changes, the next 100 days will be just like 
the first: a whole lot of talk and no progress, a series of broken or 
unfulfilled promises to the working families of America.

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