What Trump has gotten done as president so far

I want to thank Steve Ortiz of Redwood City for the “throwdown” and the opportunity to expound upon President Trump’s accomplishments. Honestly, I had planned to move on to an entirely new subject this week but such a rich invitation deserves an answer.

First, I must admit, when I referenced the president’s “doing good for America,” I had nothing specific in mind. Like most Americans, I am too busy with my own family affairs, work and pastimes to keep a catalogue of President Trump’s “Winnings” for America. I simply know from listening to the news and reading the papers since he was elected, all in all, the president has sought to keep his campaign promises and to me, those promises are positive things for the country. That said, when I looked into the particulars of what he has done since January of 2017, I was amazed at the breadth of categories covered and the long list of accomplishments under each category. In the space of this column, it is impossible to include them all, so my focus will only be on two but that is definitely more than one as Mr. Ortiz challenges.

The economy. Oh, yes, I know, I was told not to include the economy because we all know its positive measures are 100% a residual effect of the Obama administration. Our GDP growth has nothing to do with Donald J. Trump. The problem is, I cannot think of one policy of Obama’s presidency that was aimed at improving the economy and, in fact, it was president Obama himself who conceded to a very high unemployment rate being “a new normal” for the United States. Related to Obama’s 10% unemployment concession, economists during his tenure lamented that less than 2% real GDP growth would be all we could ever expect, then and into the future.

Then along came Donald Trump. Precisely because of three policies pursued by this president, the talk of the economists changed and the U.S. economy swung back into action. His first policy was to lower taxes. President Trump advocated for and helped steer through Congress lower income tax rates for all Americans. Second, he fought for fair trade with our foreign partners. He has removed the United States from unfair and harmful trade agreements put in place by former administrations, like the job killing Trans-Pacific Partnership. Third, he has reduced the regulatory red tape that has been strangling U.S. companies. In April of 2017, The Wall Street Journal reported that President Trump had done more than any president in U.S. history to roll back regulations ... in just four months.

Next, let’s take a look at our veterans. During the 2016 campaign, they were one group that squarely caught the attention of then candidate Trump. They pleaded with him, if elected, to please do something about their need for better and quicker care at the Veterans Affairs hospitals. Their systems needed updating and modernizing and when it came to the employees, well, some were not doing their jobs up to par and our veterans were suffering for it.

In his first year in office, President Trump, along with V.A. Secretary David Schulkin, worked on numerous projects to introduce new technology to the VA, improving patient scheduling with doctors, as well as patient to doctor communications. And following a bill signed by President Trump in June of 2017, allowing incompetent employees to be fired, 500 were let go, 200 were suspended and 33 were demoted. The job may not be complete at the VA but clearly much progress has been made.

If only there were the column space, I could write about the border wall, North Korea, China, the president’s attention to victims of crime at the hands of criminal aliens, increased funding for our military and its rebuilding ... but, yes, Mr. Ortiz, there is definitely more than one good thing this president has done for our country.

A former member of the San Carlos City Council and mayor, Matt Grocott has been involved in political policy on the Peninsula for 17 years. He can be reached by email at mattgrocott@comcast.net.