Trump is finding it easier to tear down old policies than to build his own
By Jenna Johnson, Juliet Eilperin and Ed O'Keefe June 4 at 8:18 PM
Builder-turned-president Donald Trump has in many ways made good on his promise to be a political wrecking ball.
Last week, he withdrew the United States from the Paris climate accord. He has worked to roll back dozens of health, environment, labor and financial rules put in place by former president Barack Obama, and he scrapped a far-reaching trade deal with Asia as one of his first acts in office. But he and his fellow Republicans have made little progress in building an affirmative agenda of their own, a dynamic that will be on display when Congress returns this week with few major policies ready to advance.
Voters are still waiting for progress on the $1 trillion package of infrastructure projects Trump promised, the wall along the Southern border he insisted could be quickly constructed and the massive tax cuts he touted during the campaign. Even debate over health-care reform is largely focused on eliminating key parts of the Affordable Care Act and allowing states to craft policies in their place.
After being the “party of no” during the Obama years, Republicans are trying to figure out what they want to achieve in this unexpected Trump era — beyond just rolling back what Obama did.
“We are in an ugly era of people who do not understand what the legislative branch is even for,” said Andy Karsner, who served as assistant secretary of energy for efficiency and renewable energy in the George W. Bush administration and is now based in California, working with entrepreneurs as managing partner of the Emerson Collective.
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https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-is-finding-it-easier-to-tear-down-old-policies-than-to-build-his-own/2017/06/04/3d0bcdb2-47c5-11e7-a196-a1bb629f64cb_story.html
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