Trump's Promises

[kscarbel2]

Trump's "Day One" Promises

Everything that Donald Trump has promised to do on his first day in office.

• "Repeal every single Obama executive order." (He has also pledged more specifically to "eliminate every unconstitutional executive order.")
• "Repeal Obamacare." (On Trump's campaign website, he's less bullish, promising only to "ask Congress" on day one to repeal Obamacare immediately.)
• "End the war on coal."
• "Begin swiftly removing criminal illegal immigrants from this country." (More specifically, Trump has promised to do this in his "first hour" in office, "day one, before the wall, before anything.")
• "Begin working on an impenetrable, physical, tall, powerful, beautiful, southern border wall."
• Meet with Homeland Security officials and generals to begin securing the southern border.
• "Notify all countries that refuse to take back dangerous illegal immigrants who have committed crimes in this country that they will lose access to our visa programs if they continue to do so."
• Convene his top generals and inform them they have 30 days to come up with a plan to stop ISIS.
• Fix the Department of Veterans Affairs.
• Call the heads of major companies who are moving operations oversea to inform them that they'll face 35 percent tariffs.
• "Contact countries and say…'Folks, we love protecting you, we want to continue to protect you but you're not living up to the bargain'…They're not paying what they're supposed to be paying—which is very little, by the way."
• "Defend the unborn."
• "Withdraw from TPP."
• "Start taking care of our…military."
• Suspend Syrian refugee resettlement.
• "Notify our NAFTA partners of my intention to renegotiate the deal."
• "Designate China as a currency manipulator."
• "Direct every agency in government to begin identifying all wasteful job-killing regulations, and they are going to be removed."
• "Get rid of gun-free zones [in] schools" and "military bases"—which would require repealing a 25-year-old federal law. ("My first day, it gets signed, okay? My first day. There's no more gun-free zones.")
• "Ask Congress to pass 'Kate's Law'—named for Kate Steinle—to ensure that criminal aliens convicted of illegal reentry receive strong mandatory minimum sentences."
• Learn the difference between Hezbollah and Hamas.

[kscarbel2]

76 of Donald Trump’s many campaign promises

The Washington Post  /  January 22, 2016

1. Build a wall along the southern border that's taller than the arenas where Trump holds his rallies, taller than any ladder and one foot taller than the Great Wall of China. This "artistically beautiful" wall will be constructed out of hardened concrete, rebar and steel, and it will be "the greatest wall that you've ever seen" -- so great that the nation will likely one day name it "The Trump Wall."

2. Make Mexico pay for the wall. If Mexico refuses, then the United States will impound all remittance payments taken from the wages of illegal immigrants, cut foreign aid, institute tariffs, cancel visas for Mexican business leaders and diplomats, and increase fees for visas, border-crossing cards and port use.

3. "If I become president, we're all going to be saying 'Merry Christmas' again."

4. Get rid of Common Core because it's "a disaster" and a "very bad thing." Trump says he wants to give local school districts more control and might even eliminate the Department of Education.

5. The Environmental Protection Agency might also disappear.

6. Get rid of Obamacare and replace it with something "terrific" that is "so much better, so much better, so much better."

7. Knock down the regulatory walls between states for health insurance, making plans available nationally instead of regionally.

8. Rebuild the country's aging infrastructure -- especially bridges and airports that look like they belong in a third-world country -- for one-third of what the United States is currently paying for such projects.

9. Save Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security without cutting benefits.

10. Defund Planned Parenthood.

11. "I will take care of women, and I have great respect for women. I do cherish women, and I will take care of women."

12. Frequently use the term "radical Islamic terrorism."

13. Temporarily ban most foreign Muslims from entering the United States "until our country's representatives can figure out what is going on." Trump would allow exceptions for dignitaries, business people, athletes and others who have "proven" themselves.

14. Bar Syrian refugees from entering the country and kick out any who are already living here. Trump says wealthy Persian Gulf nations like Saudi Arabia should pay to set up a heavily guarded "safe zone" in Syria.

15. Heavily surveil mosques in the United States. Trump has said he's open to the idea of closing some mosques.

16. Create a database of Syrian refugees. Trump hasn't ruled out creating a database of Muslims in the country.

17. Never take a vacation while serving as president.

18. Prosecute Hillary Clinton for her use of a private e-mail server while serving as secretary of state.

19. Make medical marijuana widely available to patients, and allow states to decide if they want to fully legalize pot or not.

20. Stop spending money on space exploration until the United States can fix its potholes. Encourage private space-exploration companies to expand.

21. Pick Supreme Court justices who are "really great legal scholars."

22. Ensure that Iowa continues to host the nation's first presidential nominating contest.

23. Strengthen the military so that it's "so big and so strong and so great" that "nobody's going to mess with us."

24. Be unpredictable. "No one is going to touch us, because I'm so unpredictable."

25. Allow Russia to deal with the Islamic State in Syria and/or work with Russian President Vladimir Putin to wipe out shared enemies.

26. "Bomb the s--- out of ISIS." Also bomb oil fields controlled by the Islamic State, then seize the oil and give the profits to military veterans who were wounded while fighting.

27. Target and kill the relatives of terrorists.

28. Shut down parts of the Internet so that Islamic State terrorists cannot use it to recruit American children.

29. Bring back waterboarding, which the Obama administration considers torture. Trump has said he's willing to use interrogation techniques that go even further than waterboarding. Even if such tactics don't work, "they deserve it anyway, for what they're doing."

30. Leave troops in Afghanistan because it's such "a mess." Protect Israel. And increase U.S. military presence in the East and South China Seas.

31. Find an "out" clause in the Iran deal and then "totally" renegotiate the whole thing.

32. "I promise I will never be in a bicycle race. That I can tell you." (This promise is connected to criticism of Secretary of State John F. Kerry, who was injured while riding a bicycle amid the Iran negotiations.)

33. Refuse to call Iran's leader by his preferred title. "I guarantee you I will be never calling him the Supreme Leader... I'll say, 'Hey baby, how ya doing?' I will never call him the Supreme Leader."

34. Negotiate the release of all U.S. prisoners held in Iran before taking office. (Five hostages were recently released, including Washington Post reporter Jason Rezaian; Trump has taken some credit for this.)

35. Oppose the killing of journalists: "I hate some of these people, but I would never kill them."

36. Find great generals -- like the next Gen. Patton or Gen. MacArthur -- and do not allow them to go onto television news shows to explain their military strategy: "I don't want my generals being interviewed, I want my generals kicking a--." Trump likes generals who are rough, foul-mouthed and beloved by their troops.

37. Drop that "dirty, rotten traitor" Bowe Bergdahl out of an airplane into desolate Afghanistan without a parachute.

38. Fire "the corrupt and incompetent" leaders of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and dramatically reform the agency. Allow veterans to take their military identification card to any medical facility that accepts Medicaid patients to receive care. Embed satellite VA clinics in rural hospitals and underserved areas, and ensure than every VA hospital is permanently staffed with OBGYN doctors.

39. Invest more heavily in programs that help military veterans transition back to civilian life, including job training and placement services. Also increase funding for the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder, traumatic brain injuries and mental health issues. Veterans who apply for a job at a VA facility will have five points added to their qualifying scores.

40. Bring back jobs from China -- and Mexico, Japan and elsewhere.

41. "I will be the greatest jobs president that God ever created." Trump says cities like Reno, Nev., will "be a big fat beautiful beneficiary" of these new jobs.

42. Students at Wofford College in South Carolina, where Trump attended a town hall, will all have jobs at graduation.

43. Aggressively challenge China's power in the world by declaring the country a currency manipulator, adopting a "zero tolerance policy on intellectual property theft and forced technology transfer" and cracking down on China's "lax labor and environmental standards."

44. Rather than throw the Chinese president a state dinner, buy him "a McDonald's hamburger and say we've got to get down to work."

45. Replace "free trade" with "fair trade." Gather together the "smartest negotiators in the world," assign them each a country and renegotiate all foreign trade deals.

46. Put billionaire hedge fund manager Carl Icahn in charge of trade negotiations with China and Japan, and pick an ambassador to Japan who is "a killer," unlike the current ambassador, Caroline Kennedy.

47. Tell Ford Motor Co.'s president that unless he cancels plans to build a massive plant in Mexico, the company will face a 35 percent tax on cars imported back into the United States. Trump is confident he can get this done before taking office. (Last year he incorrectly said this had already happened.)

48. Force Nabisco to once again make Oreos in the United States. And bully Apple into making its "damn computers" and other products here.

49. Impose new taxes on many imports into the country. Numbers thrown around have included 32 percent, 34 percent and 35 percent.

50. Grow the nation's economy by at least 6 percent.

51. Reduce the $18 trillion national debt by "vigorously eliminating waste, fraud and abuse in the federal government, ending redundant government programs and growing the economy to increase tax revenues."

52. Cut the budget by 20 percent by simply renegotiating.

53. Get rid of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act.

54. Simplify the U.S. tax code and reduce the number of tax brackets from seven to four. The highest earners would pay a 25-percent tax. The corporate tax rate would fall to 15 percent. Eliminate the "marriage penalty" for taxpayers and get rid of the alternate minimum tax.

55. No longer charge income tax to single individuals earning less than $25,000 per year or couples earning less than $50,000. These people will, however, be required to file a one-page form with the Internal Revenue Service that states: "I win."

56. Ensure that Americans can still afford to golf.

57. Allow corporations a one-time window to transfer money being held overseas, charging a much-reduced 10 percent tax.

58. Get rid of most corporate tax loopholes or incentives, but continue to allow taxpayers to deduct mortgage interest and charitable donations from their taxes.

59. On his first day in office, Trump would get rid of gun-free zones at military bases and in schools.

60. Use "common sense" to fix the mental health system and prevent mass shootings. Find ways to arm more of the "good guys" like him who can take out the "sickos." Get rid of bans on certain types of guns and magazines so that "good, honest people" can own the guns of their choice.

61. Impose a minimum sentence of five years in federal prison for any violent felon who commits a crime using a gun, with no chance for parole or early release.

62. Fix the background check system used when purchasing guns to ensure states are properly uploading criminal and health records.

63. Allow concealed-carry permits to be recognized in all 50 states.

64. Sign an executive order calling for the death penalty for anyone found guilty of killing a police officer.

65. Provide more funding for police training.

66. And provide more funding for drug treatment, especially for heroin addicts.

67. On the first day in office, terminate President Obama's executive orders related to immigration. This includes getting rid of "sanctuary cities" that Trump says have become refuges for criminals.

68. Deport the almost 11 million immigrants illegally living in the United States.

69. Triple the number of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers.

70. Continue to allow lowly paid foreign workers to come to the United States on temporary works visas because Trump says they are the only ones who want to pick grapes.

71. End birthright citizenship.

72. Say things that are politically incorrect, because the country does not have time to waste with political correctness.

73. Make America great again -- and strong again, as it has become too weak.

74. Be a cheerleader for America and bring the country's spirit back. "Take the brand of the United States and make it great again."

75. Bring back the American Dream.

76. Start winning again. "We're going to win so much -- win after win after win -- that you're going to be begging me: 'Please, Mr. President, let us lose once or twice. We can't stand it any more.' And I'm going to say: 'No way. We're going to keep winning. We're never going to lose. We're never, ever going to lose."

[BillyT]

And make the tooth fairy Secretary of state!

[Phase 1]

A politician's promises.

Revisit the list in four years.

[GreenGiant2]

I like the list

[kscarbel2]

 

[kscarbel2]

The day one itinerary appears to have been reduced from 21 items to 6. No mention of a wall, and he will not prosecute Hillary Clinton (21 item list at beginning of thread)

.

 

[TeamsterGrrrl]

Narrative for the next 4 years: Trump Lied!

[Underdog]

Can't be any worse than the lies of the past 20 years.

Even if Trump does well, you'll never hear about it on PMSNBC.

[41chevy]

5 hours ago, kscarbel2 said:

The day one itinerary appears to have been reduced from 21 items to 6. No mention of a wall, and he will not prosecute Hillary Clinton (21 item list at beginning of thread)

.

Could it be the wish not to  polarize or fragment the country any further apart than it is?  I feel by Inauguration Day the Democrat Nation and the Republican Nation (since that seems to be how we are divided now) will be at the point of a most violent and murderous confrontation any how.

He may not prosecute her but who is to say what Congress or the new head of the Justice Department would do.

[kscarbel2]

 

[kscarbel2]

Trump threatens ‘consequences’ for U.S. firms that relocate offshore

The Washington Post  /  November 1, 2016

President-elect Donald Trump on Thursday warned that the government would punish companies seeking to move operations overseas with “consequences,” setting the stage for an unusual level of intervention by the White House into private enterprise.

Trump’s remarks came as he triumphantly celebrated a decision by the heating and air-conditioning company Carrier to reverse its plans to close a furnace plant here and move to Mexico, helping keep 1,100 [of 1,400] jobs in Indianapolis. About 800 of those were manufacturing positions that had been scheduled to move south of the border.

An additional 300 to 600 Carrier positions at that plant, as well as roughly 700 jobs at another facility in the area, will still be cut.

Under the terms of the agreement, which have not been finalized, Carrier would receive a $7 million tax incentive package from the state of Indiana [i.e. Indiana taxpayers] in exchange for making a $16 million investment in the facility — although Trump said Thursday that amount would probably be higher.

In remarks delivered inside the Carrier facility, the president-elect said more companies will decide to stay in the United States because his administration will lower corporate taxes and reduce regulations.

Trump also warned that businesses that decide to go abroad will pay a price through a border tax on imported goods.

“Companies are not going to leave the United States anymore without consequences,” Trump declared Thursday. “Not gonna happen. It’s not gonna happen.”

Trump had no plans to intervene in the Carrier case until he watched an evening news segment featuring a worker who expressed confidence that the ­president-elect would save the Indianapolis plant. Trump had vowed during the campaign, “We’re not going to let Carrier leave.” Known for his tendency to react to TV news reports, Trump said he immediately picked up the phone and called Gregory Hayes, the chief executive of Carrier’s parent company, United Technologies. “I said, ‘Greg, you gotta help us out here. You gotta do something,’ ” Trump recalled Thursday. Standing in front of a wall blanketed with Carrier’s blue-and-white logo, Trump lavished praise on the company for its decision, promising that the sales of its air-conditioning units would soar “because of the goodwill you have engendered.”

Trump’s determination to use a mixture of incentives and tariffs to keep jobs from going overseas represents a sharp break with the free-market wing of the Republican Party, including senior congressional leaders. On Thursday, top Republicans offered careful responses to the Carrier deal.

“I think it’s pretty darn good that people are keeping their jobs in Indiana instead of going to Mexico,” said House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.), emphasizing that the party is hoping to pass comprehensive tax changes that would be a boon to all businesses. Ryan has repeatedly criticized President Obama for allegedly trying to pick “winners and losers” in his stimulus package and other economic policies.

[Why lots of people think Trump’s deal to save 1,000 Indiana jobs was a bad idea]

The Carrier deal was sharply criticized by some conservatives, who viewed it as government distortion of free markets, as well as liberals, who derided it as corporate welfare.

“I think it sets a pretty bad precedent,” said Dan Ikenson, director of the Herbert A. Stiefel Center for Trade Policy Studies at the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank. “I don’t think we should be addressing issues like this on an ad hoc basis. It certainly incentivizes companies to make a stink and say: ‘We’re going to leave, too. What are you going to do for me?’ ”

Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, who ran for the Democratic presidential nomination, accused Trump of reversing course on a pledge to punish companies that outsource manufacturing jobs. In the case of Carrier, Trump had said he would force the company to “pay a damn tax” if it closed the plant.

[Instead of paying a tax, Carrier will get $7 million of free taxpayer money, AND 1,100  Carrier workers in Indiana are still seeing their jobs relocated to Mexico]

“Instead of a damn tax, the company will be rewarded with a damn tax cut,” Sanders wrote in an op-ed for The Washington Post. “Wow! How’s that for standing up to corporate greed?”

Privately, some business leaders were also unnerved.

“It is uncharted territory for a president-elect to get involved personally in social engineering with a single company,” said an adviser to major corporations, who spoke on the condition of anonymity in order not to anger the incoming administration.

Now that Carrier “is no longer the political piñata,” the adviser added, chief executives “are asking, ‘Who’s next?’ ”

Timothy Bartik, an economist at the nonpartisan W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research in Kalamazoo, Mich., said that vague threats from the ­president-elect could stymie corporate investment as firms seek to avoid decisions that could draw the ire of the White House.

“What are these consequences? Who’s in charge of them?” Bartik asked.

“One of the worst things for corporate investment is uncertainty,” he added. “You would hope that the government would not add to the uncertainty.”

 [Trump is shocked that Carrier workers took him literally. That doesn’t bode well for his many promises.]

But Trump said Thursday that he planned to personally call other companies that are contemplating moving operations out of the country, even, as he said, if critics felt such outreach was not “presidential.”

“I think it’s very presidential. And if it’s not presidential, that’s okay because I actually like doing it,” Trump said. “But we’re going to have a lot of phone calls made to companies when they say they’re leaving this country, because they’re not going to leave this country.”

Trump’s aggressive stance toward outsourcing comes despite the fact that his family companies profit from low-wage laborers around the globe who produce Trump-branded merchandise. His daughter Ivanka has her own separate brand of jewelry, shoes and clothing, much of which is produced in China.

On the campaign trail, Trump repeatedly attacked specific companies for outsourcing, drawing huge cheers from his crowds. He blasted Ford Motor Co. for opening factories in Mexico, criticized a U.S. drug company that moved its headquarters offshore and said he would not longer eat Oreo cookies because its maker, Nabisco, moved part of its production to Mexico.

He also mocked politicians who offered low-interest loans and tax abatements to keep factories in the United States.[as he has done with Carrier]

“These companies don’t even need the money, most of them,” he said at a rally in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., in October. “They take the money. There were a couple instances where geniuses with great lawyers gave them money, and then they moved anyway.”

Trump repeatedly pointed to Carrier’s planned move to Mexico as a prime example of the perils of globalization: The company told Indiana officials it would save $65 million a year by shifting production to a 645,000-square-foot factory under construction outside Monterrey, where wages are far lower.

Carrier rejected a tax incentive package the state offered earlier in the year to keep the Indianapolis plant open. But that was before Trump won the election and Indiana Gov. Mike Pence became the vice president-elect.

Some state officials also noted that the federal government is a major customer of Carrier’s parent, United Technologies.

United Technologies’ sales to the government have dropped in recent years, from $6.3 billion in 2013 to $5.6 billion last year, making up about 10 percent of its total revenue.

Note: The “Department of Energy awarded Carrier $5.1 million in clean energy tax credits in December 2013 for its Indianapolis facility. Carrier at that time said it planned to use the money to expand production at its Indianapolis facility to meet increasing demand for its eco-friendly condensing gas furnace product line.

[kscarbel2]

Trump is shocked that Carrier took him literally. That doesn’t bode well for his many promises.

The Washington Post  /  December 1, 2016

One of the best explanations of the Donald Trump 2016 phenomenon is this, via Salena Zito: "The press takes him literally, but not seriously; his supporters take him seriously, but not literally."

But apparently some supporters took him both seriously and literally. And Trump, rather amazingly, is surprised by this.

During his attempted victory lap in Indiana on Thursday celebrating the fact that Carrier opted to keep jobs in the state thanks to $7 million in incentives, Trump candidly admitted that he didn't even remember having promised to keep Carrier's jobs in the state and insisted that he hadn't actually meant to make that promise.

He said his mention of keeping Carrier's jobs was meant to signify other manufacturing companies that might be tempted to move jobs outside the country — as Carrier long planned to do — in the future, and that he didn't even realize he had said it until he saw on the news that Carrier's workers expected him to make it happen.

"About a week ago, I was watching the nightly news," Trump said. "But they were doing a story on Carrier. And I say, 'Wow, that's something. I want to see that.'"

Trump recalled a "handsome" employee who was interviewed for the piece who didn't seem worried about the company's plans to move production to Mexico.

"He said something to the effect, 'No we're not leaving, because Donald Trump promised us that we're not leaving,'" Trump said. "And I never thought I made that promise — not with Carrier. I made it for everybody else. I didn't make it really for Carrier. And I said, 'What's he saying?'"

Trump went on: "And they played my statement. I said, 'Carrier will never leave.' But that was a euphemism. I was talking about Carrier, like all other companies from here on in. Because they made the decision a year and a half ago. But he believed that that was — and I could understand it."

He was apparently referring to this Nov. 14 NBC Nightly News clip:

Carrier a/c became a rallying cry for Trump on the campaign trail. Now employees are counting on him to fulfill his promise. Watch @kevtibs. pic.twitter.com/vS4fgi8Zfg

— Bradd Jaffy (@BraddJaffy) November 15, 2016

Here is the exact comment Trump made back in August:

We're bringing jobs back to our country. We're not going to let Carrier leave.

Here's the thing: You can make an argument that Trump was perhaps speaking more generally and using Carrier as an example of the type of company that would no longer be leaving under his presidency.

But this is a statement he made while in Indiana — in front of people who had a very strong interest in taking him literally. They did, and yet he was apparently surprised by that. Any studied politician would know that if you are in Indiana and you say Carrier won't leave, you had better mean those exact words.

That doesn't bode well for the hundreds of promises Trump has made that some highly interested stakeholders may have taken very seriously. Zito's overall statement may hold true — that people read into Trump what they want and that they didn't take everything he said 100 percent literally. But for everyone who voted for Trump, you can bet there's something they hope he was being very literal about — whether prosecuting Hillary Clinton, building a wall, taxing outsourcers (which Trump pledged to do yet again Thursday) or repealing Obamacare.

There's quite simply no way Trump will ever fulfill all (or even most) of those promises, and perhaps his supporters will understand that. But many likely won't.

For the first time, the president-elect has been asked to cash a check that his mouth wrote. There will be more.

[kscarbel2]

Bernie Sanders: Carrier just showed corporations how to beat Donald Trump

Op-ed by Bernie Sanders (I-Vt)

The Washington Post  /  December 1, 2016

Today, about 1,000 Carrier workers and their families should be rejoicing. But the rest of our nation’s workers should be very nervous.

President-elect Donald Trump will reportedly announce a deal with United Technologies, the corporation that owns Carrier, that keeps less than 1,000 of the 2,100 jobs in America that were previously scheduled to be transferred to Mexico. Let’s be clear: It is not good enough to save some of these jobs. Trump made a promise that he would save all of these jobs, and we cannot rest until an ironclad contract is signed to ensure that all of these workers are able to continue working in Indiana without having their pay or benefits slashed.

In exchange for allowing United Technologies to continue to offshore more than 1,000 jobs, Trump will reportedly give the company tax and regulatory favors that the corporation has sought.

Just a short few months ago, Trump was pledging to force United Technologies to “pay a damn tax.” He was insisting on very steep tariffs for companies like Carrier that left the United States and wanted to sell their foreign-made products back in the United States.

Instead of a damn tax, the company will be rewarded with a damn tax cut. Wow! How’s that for standing up to corporate greed? How’s that for punishing corporations that shut down in the United States and move abroad?

In essence, United Technologies took Trump hostage and won. And that should send a shock wave of fear through all workers across the country.

Trump has endangered the jobs of workers who were previously safe in the United States. Why? Because he has signaled to every corporation in America that they can threaten to offshore jobs in exchange for business-friendly tax benefits and incentives. Even corporations that weren’t thinking of offshoring jobs will most probably be reevaluating their stance this morning. And who would pay for the high cost for tax cuts that go to the richest businessmen in America? The working class of America.  

Let’s be clear. United Technologies is not going broke. Last year, it made a profit of $7.6 billion and received more than $6 billion in defense contracts. It has also received more than $50 million from the Export-Import Bank and very generous tax breaks. In 2014, United Technologies gave its former chief executive Louis Chenevert a golden parachute worth more than $172 million. Last year, the company’s five highest-paid executives made more than $50 million. The firm also spent $12 billion to inflate its stock price instead of using that money to invest in new plants and workers.

Does that sound like a company that deserves more corporate welfare from our government? Trump’s Band-Aid solution is only making the problem of wealth inequality in America even worse.

I said I would work with Trump if he was serious about the promises he made to members of the working class. But after running a campaign pledging to be tough on corporate America, Trump has hypocritically decided to do the exact opposite. He wants to treat corporate irresponsibility with kid gloves. The problem with our rigged economy is not that our policies have been too tough on corporations; it’s that we haven’t been tough enough.

We need to re-instill an ethic of corporate patriotism. We need to send a very loud and clear message to corporate America: The era of outsourcing is over. Instead of offshoring jobs, the time has come for you to start bringing good-paying jobs back to America.

If United Technologies or any other company wants to keep outsourcing decent-paying American jobs, those companies must pay an outsourcing tax equal to the amount of money they expect to save by moving factories to Mexico or other low-wage countries.  They should not receive federal contracts or other forms of corporate welfare. They must pay back all of the tax breaks and other corporate welfare they have received from the federal government. And they must not be allowed to reward their executives with stock options, bonuses or golden parachutes for outsourcing jobs to low-wage countries. I will soon be introducing the Outsourcing Prevention Act, which will address exactly that.

If Donald Trump won’t stand up for America’s working class, we must.

[kscarbel2]

CEO Mark Fields Says Ford Still Moving Small-Car Output to Mexico Despite Trump Criticism

The Wall Street Journal  /  December 2, 2016

Ford Motor Co. will go ahead with relocating small-car production to Mexico despite repeated criticism from President-elect Donald Trump, who has warned that companies face consequences for leaving the U.S.

Ford’s plan to relocate Focus compact car production from Michigan to a new $1.6 billion plant being built in Mexico, which isn’t expected to result in job losses, remains on track for 2018, Ford CEO Mark Fields said Friday.

“We have made the decision to move the Focus out, and we’re making that investment now,” Fields said. “When you look at moving the Focus out of our Michigan assembly plant, that’s to make room for new products—zero jobs affected, zero jobs impacted.”

Ford is expected to replace the Focus production headed to Mexico with a pickup truck and SUV at the Michigan plant. Unionized auto workers would keep their jobs and potentially receive larger profit-sharing checks should Ford’s operating profits in North America increase.

“This isn’t a Carrier situation,” claimed Fields. He said Ford decided to produce the car in Mexico partly to keep the vehicle’s price in line with customer expectations. “In our business, it’s a long-lead investment.”

Fields said Ford’s U.S. investment commitments remain “as strong as ever,” pointing to the company’s commitment to invest $9 billion in its U.S. plants over the next three years as part of a new labor contract struck last year with the UAW. The investment allegedly would support or create 8,500 blue-collar jobs at Ford’s U.S. plants.

Trump has said companies going forward would no longer “leave the U.S. anymore without consequences.” He has promised to slap Ford and other manufacturers with a 35% tariff for importing goods from countries with lower labor costs. The pledge resonated with blue-collar workers, helping Trump win close election battles in Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania, the three decisive states that propelled him to the White House.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Bloomberg  /  December 2, 2016

Ford is willing to work with Donald Trump to keep jobs in the U.S. if he puts the right policies in place, CEO Mark Fields said Friday.

“We will be very clear in the things we’d like to see,” says Fields. “We’ll continue to advocate for currency-manipulation rules to promote free and fair trade. One of our priorities is making sure fuel-economy standards reflect market realities, tax reform in general we would be very supportive of, and the safe deployment of autonomous vehicles.”

After his election, Trump phoned Ford Executive Chairman Bill Ford to discuss the carmaker’s plan to move production of the Lincoln MKC crossover to Mexico from a plant in Louisville, Kentucky. Ford then announced it will keep building the Lincoln in the U.S.

[MKC production is very low. Whether MKC stays or goes doesn’t matter. The Lincoln brand will likely be terminated....again. The announcement to keep MKC production in the US is all for show to the masses. Ford never “actually” planned relocate MKC production top Mexico, because the MKC is based on the Escape (global market “Kuga”), which is produced in Louisville. Ford can’t move MKC production to Mexico without moving Escape production with it]

Ford still plans to move its Focus compact and C-Max hybrid to Mexico from a Michigan factory, but the automaker has said it believes it can work with the new president to encourage economic growth in the U.S.

Trump the candidate threatened to slap a 35 percent tariff on cars Ford builds in Mexico and ships back to the U.S.

 “Our position is very different than the Carrier position,” Fields said. As for any Trump administration policies to keep jobs in the U.S., “we’ll always take those into account, understanding that some of the things being proposed would impact the entire industry, as opposed to giving special deals to individual companies.”

Fields said he didn’t know whether Trump would carry through with his pledge to impose the 35 percent tariff on Ford’s Mexican-built cars, but he said he doubted that any such duty would be applied to only one company.

“If a tariff was imposed, it would be imposed on the entire industry, not just singling out a single company,” Fields said. “When you look at the production and supply chains and how they’re integrated between the three countries” -- Mexico, Canada and the U.S. -- “putting a tariff on that would have a negative impact on all the economies.”

Ford received no incentives for keeping Lincoln MKC production in Kentucky, but the automaker never planned to close that Louisville plant, which also builds the Escape crossover that outsells the Lincoln version by 12-to-1.

Ford already makes the Lincoln MKZ sedan and the Fusion family car in Mexico. It’s building a $1.6 billion new small-car factory in the Mexican state of San Luis Potosi, which will create 2,800 jobs there by 2020.

Ford has said it is just the fifth-largest producer of vehicles in Mexico [so being unethical is okay] while it’s the top automotive manufacturer in the U.S. Ford claims it added nearly 28,000 jobs in the U.S. over the last five years. Ford employs 85,000 workers in the U.S. and 8,800 in Mexico.

Since 2010, nine global automakers, including General Motors, Ford and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA), have announced investments of more than $24 billion in Mexico, where wages are 80 percent lower than in the U.S. Annual auto output in Mexico is expected to more than double this decade, from 2 million to 5 million vehicles.

[kscarbel2]

Donald Trump steps up warnings to US business over offshoring

The Financial Times  /  December 4, 2016

President-elect threatens tariffs of 35% on goods produced by units abroad

Donald Trump has stepped up his warnings that US companies will be punished for shifting production overseas.

The US president-elect on Sunday reinforced a campaign pledge that he would impose a punitive 35 per cent tariff on US companies that import products from their factories abroad, a step that would roil global supply chains and meet fierce resistance from business.

In a series of early-morning tweets, he told companies considering offshoring that his plans would “make leaving financially difficult”, adding: “Please be forewarned prior to making a very expensive mistake!”

China is one of the top offshoring destinations for US companies. Vice president-elect, Mike Pence, said Trump feels that “we’ve just been losing to China far too long economically”.

“The American people have elected a president who, not just with regard to China, but with other countries around the world, and even in our hemisphere, [is] going to put American workers and American jobs first,” said Pence.

In a sign of the support he is receiving from countries not usually seen as the US’s allies, Russian President Vladimir Putin on Sunday called Trump a “clever” man who would soon get to grips with the weighty duties of his new job.

“Since he’s achieved success in business, that suggests he is a clever man,” said Putin. “So if he’s a clever man, that means he’ll quite quickly grasp another level of responsibility. We assume that he will act from these positions.”

Big US businesses have welcomed Trump’s plans to cut taxes and regulation but are upset by his hostile stance on free trade.

Trump didn’t explain how the tariffs would be implemented and whether they would apply to all imports or only those from US-owned factories overseas. It was also unclear whether they would affect existing or only new offshore production.

Pence on Sunday said the incoming Trump administration had already secured agreement from Mexico’s president Enrique Pena Nieto that it would renegotiate the NAFTA free trade agreement.

“[Trump is] going to put on the table all the tools that are going to take away the advantages of companies that for far too long have been pulling up stakes, leaving American workers behind and then creating products, shipping them back into the [US],” Pence said.

.

 

[BillyT]

It keeps getting "curiouser and curiouser" but we will see...still waiting for comments by my fellow contributors on on GM building a Buick in China!

A Buick poorly rated by Consumer Reports at that!

[TeamsterGrrrl]

I'd rather see GM build it here, but I suspect it's going to flop in the marketplace anyway. Ford is bring in the Fiesta's SUV sister the Ecosport from India, no road tests on it yet but I suspect Ford won't sell enough to justify building it here.

[kscarbel2]

On 12/6/2016 at 2:17 AM, BillyT said:

It keeps getting "curiouser and curiouser" but we will see...still waiting for comments by my fellow contributors on on GM building a Buick in China!

A Buick poorly rated by Consumer Reports at that!

Billy, for the record, the China-assembled Buick Envision is a solid SUV (crossover), and no different in quality than if it had been assembled in he US. 

I personally don't like GM vehicles because the build materials (interior trim) appear to age faster than competitive brands.

Like you, given the massive size of the United States and its light vehicle market, the world's second largest, I believe that light vehicle makers should produce ALL medium and high volume models on U.S. soil, slow selling niche models being the exception.

[kscarbel2]

Trump told the world that, if he were president, Hillary would be in jail. We all saw and heard him say it on TV with the utmost seriousness.

Trump has since totally flip-flopped on that major campaign point. Trump has done a 360, now saying that putting Hillary in jail is "just not something I feel very strongly about."

"I don't want to hurt the Clintons, I really don't," Trump said. "She went through a lot and suffered greatly in many different ways."

One minute, he wants to put her in a cold prison cell. Now, he wants to aid and comfort an old friend.

After "lock her up" chants started at Trump's post-election "thank you" rally in Michigan this week, he responded, "That plays great before the election -- now we don't care, right?"

But people DO care. Trump’s supporters voted for him because they took him seriously. Now, he’s telling them all the promises he made was merely campaign rhetoric.

[kscarbel2]

From my research (please correct me if I’m wrong), Trump promised to take 31 actions on "Day One" in office. Though his first day literally was Friday Jan 20, but I waited for Monday Jan 23 to conclude before checking the outcome. It appears that he has only fulfilled 2 of his 31 "day one" promises.

----------------------------------------------------

Fulfilled promises:

Promise — Impose a hiring freeze on federal employees, excluding military, public safety, and public health staff.

Outcome - Trump signed a memorandum Monday freezing most federal government hiring, with an exception for the military.

Promise - Formally withdraw from the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership.

Outcome - Trump signed a memorandum Monday that moves to pull the United States out of the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership trade pact.

----------------------------------------------------

Unfulfilled promises:

Immigration

— Stop all federal funding to "sanctuary cities" — places where local officials don't arrest or detain immigrants living in the country illegally for federal authorities.

— Begin deporting what Trump estimates to be more than 2 million criminal illegal immigrants living in the country. (Trump has promised to do this in his "first hour" in office, "day one, before the wall, before anything.")

— "Notify all countries that refuse to take back dangerous illegal immigrants who have committed crimes in this country that they will lose access to our visa programs if they continue to do so."

— Immediately terminate former President Obama's "two illegal executive amnesties." (That presumably includes DACA, which protects people who were brought into the country illegally as children.)

— Begin working on an "impenetrable physical wall" along the southern border.

— "Ask Congress to pass 'Kate's Law'—named for Kate Steinle—to ensure that criminal aliens convicted of illegal reentry receive strong mandatory minimum sentences."

Security & Defense

— Immediately suspend the Syrian refugee resettlement program.

— Convene his generals and inform them that they have 30 days to submit a new plan for defeating ISIS.

— Suspend immigration from "terror-prone regions" where he says vetting is too difficult.

— Implement new "extreme" immigration vetting techniques.

— Meet with Homeland Security officials and generals to begin securing the southern border.

— "Contact countries and say…'Folks, we love protecting you, we want to continue to protect you but you're not living up to the bargain'…They're not paying what they're supposed to be paying—which is very little, by the way."

— "Start taking care of our…military."

Trade

— Direct his treasury secretary to label China a currency manipulator.

Business

— Call the heads of major companies who are moving operations oversea to inform them that they'll face 35 percent tariffs.

Draining the “swamp” and government reform

— Propose a Constitutional amendment to impose term limits on all members of Congress.

— Ban White House and congressional officials from becoming lobbyists for five years after they leave the government.

— Ban former White House officials from lobbying on behalf of foreign governments for the rest of their lives.

— Ban foreign lobbyists from raising money for U.S. elections.

— Impose a requirement that for every new federal regulation imposed, two existing regulations be eliminated.

— Fix the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Energy and the environment

— Remove any Obama-era roadblocks to energy projects such as the Keystone XL pipeline.

— Lift restrictions on mining coal and drilling for oil and natural gas.

— Cancel payments to the U.N.'s climate change programs and use the money to fix America's water and environmental infrastructure.

Health care, gun control and other

— Cancel "every unconstitutional executive action, memorandum and order issued by President Obama."

— Ask Congress to send him a bill to repeal and replace "Obamacare".

— Begin the process of selecting a new Supreme Court justice.

— Get rid of gun-free zones in schools and on military bases.

[Swishy]

Just my observation

all Politicians R full of BS each side of the fence (what ever party) leading upto an election to get where they are

eye say stand back n let Trumpman flex his muscle

jist give him a chance

naturally those th@ on free welfare th@ dun deserve it R gunna bitch n complain cos the rug might be pulled from under m

n they might have to put in to earn a $ by getn a job n stop free load n

Hope he keeps his head down  az he iz a top target for an assassination as millions could be effected

I wish him luck

cya

§wishy

[HeavyGunner]

The left is already bitching about his executive orders but I applaud him for having the balls to buck the system. A freeze on hiring anymore government employees except military, bravo!  We have way too many leeches "working" for the government costing us money and producing nothing for us. Getting rid of the trade deal that hoses the US, bravo again. The taxpayers shouldn't have to foot the bill on a bad trade deal so others countries can profit off of work. Repeal and replace our obamas crappy healthcare again bravo. It really can't be any worse but I do hope it actually works. 

[DailyDiesel]

I'd be willing to cut him slack but he promised that he would get the items done on day one so I have to hold him to it. Trump is a man of his word isn't he?

[HeavyGunner]

42 minutes ago, DailyDiesel said:

I'd be willing to cut him slack but he promised that he would get the items done on day one so I have to hold him to it. Trump is a man of his word isn't he?

Did you watch him sign the 3 executive orders yesterday? Have you not been hearing every news station whining about trump working revamping healthcare?  He hit the ground running and has done more than most politician do in a year on day one. So I say he's kept his word as best as he could.