Like everything Donald Trump generally promises, there is always the point where he fails to follow through and finds some way to pawn off his failures elsewhere, somehow, such as when he made a campaign promise in October that he would include "a 100-day action plan to Make America Great Again". Now, as April 29 nears which marks his 100-days, he now claims that he doesn't care about it at all and even scoffed at it as a ridiculous standard for his presidency to meet.
In a recent episode of Washington Week, Dan Balz of the Washington Post maintained that it was a ridiculous marker in the general sense.
But he said that the pressure on the White House has been enormous because they know how they're perceived by the public and that that they have no legislative accomplishments in time for the first 100-days. In one report by Blasting News about the negotiating tactics by Trump's budget director, it confirmed what another journalist on the panel said that the White House was using forceful tactics on Congress rather than making them legislate to his agenda using substantive changes.
Executive orders are not legislation
It's important to mention that from the beginning of his presidency, President Trump has taken to signing executive orders without knowing or caring much for the process that goes on behind them.
They were certainly photo opportunities that allowed him to wield his newly acquired powers where he would sign and show the executive orders to the press. But after signing many without actually legislating, they still don't make up for accomplishments of his first 100-days. CNN reporter Jeff Zeleny who was also with the panel said that the President was in Wisconsin for an hour and a half where he signed another executive order this week and added that this didn't contribute to any successes for him either.
Prior to this, Dan Balz said that the administration would point to certain "accomplishments" they've made that are taking them in the right direction but that they mean very little.
Cramming through Congressional schedule
Washington Post journalist Robert Costa said that some lawmakers on the Hill were looking to deal with Obamacare again before they moved on to tax reform which the President halfway pointed to as a priority while also halfway pointing back to repealing Obamacare as another priority.
In the Blasting News article mentioned above, Mick Mulvaney has said that they want to cancel subsidies to insurance companies and use that money for the President's spending agenda or they would force a government shutdown. With Congress coming back from a two week Easter break, it confirms the perception that the administration is trying to force their agenda through before Friday.
Ylan Mui of CNBC said that it didn't look like Republicans felt they will be able to target the 1 trillion dollars worth of taxes from the Affordable Care Act before the Trump administration submits their tax plan on Wednesday. Costa wonders how they're able to do this in a week, to which Mui said that tax reform was part of the President's economic job building agenda that he ran on which during his campaign, which puts us back to the matter of Trump's 100-day promise.
But it's also likely that Republicans will hold another vote to repeal and replace Obamacare next week to try and come through for his supporters. In preparation for failure, however, Trump has said that it doesn't matter if they're not able to reach those goals before his 100-days and that it could happen later.
