Forget Trump’s First 100 Days, Worry About the Next 1,362
Today marks day 100 of the Donald Trump presidency. Today you will hear a lot of talk about what Trump has or hasn’t accomplished in his first 100 days on the job. But what is far scarier to consider is what Trump could do with the 1,362 days left in his first term. That’s right. Barring any unforeseen (foreseen?) circumstances, Trump has 1,362 days to continue his assault on the best interests of working families as he sells them out to line the pockets of wealthy corporations and millionaires and billionaires just like him. So, what is Trump’s agenda likely to look like on day 101 and beyond?
Wall Street: Allow Banks, Predatory Lenders and Special Interests to Run Wild
C’mon, what should we expect from a president who settled his own $25 million fraud lawsuit stemming from his predatory for-profit faux college just days after the election? Trump has wasted no time attacking consumer protections and institutions that keep major financial institutions in check and help honest Americans get relief from big banks and predatory lenders when they’ve been wronged.
On the agenda for Trump: Gut the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act that created the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) to advocate for American consumers and the Financial Stability Oversight Council (FSOC) that makes sure we don’t get into another financial crisis like we saw in 2008 when big banks ran wild, hurting millions of Americans along the way.
The Consumer Bureau is a proven defender of the financial rights of hard-working Americans. Since its formation in 2011, it’s returned nearly $12 billion to more than 27 million American consumers who were taken advantage of by banks, credit card companies, debt collectors and predatory lenders. It’s also worked to crack down on payday lending and other financial traps.
Sounds like a respectable agency that does valuable work, right? The only problem: The Consumer Bureau has gained a reputation for going after the bad hombres on Wall Street. And many of those bad hombres are Trump’s friends or now work in his administration.
Trump used his first 100 days to undermine the work the Consumer Bureau has done for working families, and in the weeks and months ahead he promises to do “a very major haircut on Dodd Frank” – and lay the framework to strip the Bureau of many of the powers that enabled it to take on Wall Street and win for all of us.
Budget: Cut Funding for Working Families
Big surprise – During his first 100 days, Trump released a budget that would benefit the wealthy and special interests at the expense of working families.
If his proposed budget is passed sometime in the next 1,362 days, it would cut afterschool programs for children of working parents while giving a government handout to private schools and wealthy families like his who don’t need help paying for afterschool care.
Trump plans to slash billions from housing and community development programs. And sorry, Jimmy Carter, but there is a new president in town, and he wants to cut Habitat for Humanity, too – a program that literally builds homes with and for deserving working families.
The budget even hurts those who are trying their hardest to keep themselves afloat in the economy by cutting job training programs geared toward helping seniors, disadvantaged young people, and the unemployed.
The Trump administration called these “lower priority programs.” These might be programs that help millions of working Americans survive, but they are throwaway programs for wealthy elites like Trump.
Look for this to be just the first of many proposed cuts that let Trump shift resources to wealthy corporations, millionaire, and billionaires while leaving an overlooked middle class – and even many of the very same people who voted for Trump – behind.
Tax Reform: Line the Pockets of Billionaires and Wealthy Corporations
It shouldn’t come as a shock that the big winners in Trump’s sketchy tax reform proposals are, well, people like him.
In his first 100 days, Trump proposed giving a massive tax cut to corporations and billionaires, while balancing the cuts on the backs of working families – and possibly even raising their taxes in the future.
The wealthiest Americans are set to receive a huge windfall with Trump’s vision to restructure tax brackets to help those at the top. He also wants to cut the number of brackets from seven to three – and shave down the top rates so millionaires and billionaires pay less while many middle class families and those struggling to make ends meet could end up paying more.
Corporations also get a massive handout in his plan. Over the next 1,362 days, Trump proposes a corporate tax rate reduction from 35% to just 15% — which the Congressional Budget Office estimates will cost $2 trillion – yes, trillion – over the next 10 years. But if millionaires and billionaires are getting a tax cut and working families are seeing programs that help them get by decimated, who do you think will be left on the hook to pay this staggering figure? Hint: it isn’t Wall Street and it’s certainly no one in the Trump family.
While corporations and the wealthy are reaping the rewards, America’s middle class is likely to be hit with a Trump Tax. Foreclosure King and Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said he couldn’t make “any guarantees” that middle class taxes won’t go up, and Trump’s new plan eliminates common tax deductions used by working families with only a few exceptions.
Something that makes tax relief for the middle class even more dubious in the days ahead: Trump’s plan as proposed already doesn’t add up. Many experts believe it will only add to the economic deficit because of the trillions in lost tax revenue. And when it comes time to make up for those losses, you can bet the middle class will be left holding the bill.
Student Loans: Stack the Deck Against Students, Empower Loan Servicers
Trump’s first 100 days in office gave us a new Secretary of Education, Betsy DeVos. The billion-heiress who has never met an education policy she could understand, wasted no time in “screwing over students who borrow money for college” by rolling back important protections for those with student loans. If Trump and DeVos get their way in the next 1,362 days, it will only going to get worse for people trying to pay down their student loan debt.
Before he left office, President Obama issued a series of policy memos that sought to streamline the student loan servicing process and increase the quality of servicing – reforms badly needed in the wake of thousands of complaints of mismanagement and processing delays at the hands of the nation’s nine student loan servicers.
In the many (possible?) remaining days of his administration, Trump and DeVos want to help the executives who run these loan servicing corporations at the expense of 41 million Americans trying to pay off their student loans.
DeVos already rolled back the Obama-era policies that would have protected borrowers. By putting a stop to those reforms, DeVos is helping student loan servicers like Navient, a company currently being sued by the federal government for unlawful practices, continue business as usual.
In the days ahead, expect more rewards for the corporations that service loans and more headaches for their borrowers. It’s reported that Trump has his eye on a number of changes in student loan repayment, including possibly eliminating the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program that allows public servants like law enforcement officers, teachers, and those who work for non-profit organizations to pay down their debt after a decade of qualified service. But if rolling back programs like PSLF means increased profits for the millionaires and billionaires who are invested in the behemoth student loan servicing industry, you can bet it’s on the docket for Trump.
Staffing & Appointments: Hire More Billionaires, Grease the Revolving Door Between Washington and Wall Street
Throughout his campaign, Trump promised to drain the swamp that is our nation’s capital. The reality of his first 100 days in office has been quite different from his rhetoric with more millionaire and billionaire staff hires and appointments than we’ve seen in U.S. history – a “team of gazillionaires” worth up to $35 billion.
DeVos, who is tasked with supporting our public schools and helping average Americans pay down student loan debt, reaps a $1.25 billion share of her family’s overall $5.1 billion net worth. As for the guys overseeing that the economy, Forbes estimates Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross’ net worth at $2.5 billion, while former Goldman Sachs partner and Trump Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin is worth a less-impressive $300 million. These gentlemen are joined by National Economic Council Director Gary Cohn, who just finished his stint as president of Goldman Sachs, and Goldman Sachs bailout lawyer Jay Clayton, who could be confirmed any day as chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission, Wall Street’s top cop.
With all of these appointments coming out of wealthy corporations and the financial industry, it leaves one to wonder if anyone is left on Wall Street. But in the days ahead, there are sure to be many new millionaire and billionaire appointments with conflicts of interest as far as the eye can see that Trump can look forward to appointing. He still has hundreds of essential roles left unfilled in his administration. He’s gotten some help so far by filling them with lobbyists and far-right media commentators, but we can expect the D.C. swamp to grow ever bigger as Trump continues staffing his administration with the Wall Street insiders and powerful financial interests he railed against during his campaign.