Imagine: 45th President, Donald Trump. What Now?
by Sreymich Lach
During the Republican National Convention (RNC), business mogul, Donald Trump officially accepts his party’s nomination to run for the highest position in the world to potentially become the 45th President of the United States. However, it is only the former Secretary of State and the Democratic Presidential nominee, Hillary Clinton who is standing in the way of Trump’s presidential victory. Unlike past presidential nominees, Trump have drawn up the highest amount of negative opinions about him with 63% while 53% of Americans expressing disapproval about Clinton’s presidential race.
But, Donald Trump doesn’t think of himself as anything from being the “worse” choice to be our Commander-in-Chief. For someone who has zero political experience, the odds would have remained stacked high for this New York businessman; nevertheless Trump triumphed, paving way to the RNC to hear that he is officially the GOP nominee for the 2016 United States presidential election. Amounting the candidate’s capricious, volatile personality and the nature of his campaign, it is plausible that Trump can grab the victory. If Trump does win, what does it mean for the rest of America?
U.S. Economy
If Trump wins it and becomes “president,” the question now sits: can he make America rich again? Several of Trump’s proposed policies include: withdrawing the United States from the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), which is – in a nutshell – involves 12 countries: US, Malaysia, Peru, Vietnam, Singapore, Brunei Australia, Japan, New Zealand, Chile, Mexico, Canada whose goal is to cultivate economic ties to boost our country’s trade and growth. Some polls indicate that many are split between agreeing or disagreeing with Trump’s economic decision to cut America’s ties with TPP as they view trade as more an “economic opportunity” than a “threat to the nation.”
Furthermore, Trump’s tax plan is closely related to that of a Republican’s ideology where he proposes a tax cut that would favor the wealthy Americans, lowering the top rate from 39.6% to 33%, while those below the 80th percentile, those mostly living paycheck to paycheck and those pulling a 40 hour workweek, would not see a drastic change in their tax benefits.
Immigration
Who could ever forget Trump’s disgusting remarks about Latino immigrants referring to them as “criminals” and “rapists” and blaming Mexico for “not sending their best” to the United States? Such audacity, if you ask me! But his apparent hatred towards immigrants doesn’t stop there as he has repeatedly spoken of his idea of building a wall and making Mexico pay for it. A wall that is “only have to be 1,000 miles long” and costing $8 billion and will be 35-40 feet long. Trump’s extreme protocol to halt immigrants from entering the country is putting him in hot waters with the Latino/Hispanic community. Trump’s immigration plan not only impacts the U.S. economy in a negative way, but also if Trump wins the presidency the diversity that America has built itself upon will be compromised because of a man’s intolerance to outsiders.
Healthcare Reform
If President, Trump will repeal the Affordable Care Act or more popularly known as Obamacare, which has helped to insured millions of Americans that would otherwise wouldn’t have been able to attain medical for factors including but not limited to: financial problems, pre-existing conditions, gender or health status inequality, etc. From the very beginning GOP lawmakers were never a fan of President Obama’s ACA and Donald Trump is not an exception. He adamantly says that, “American people have had to suffer under the economic burden of the Affordable Care Act.” So do not be surprised that we hear President Trump in his first days in office working to repeal Obamacare as, reported from Sam Clovis, a policy advisor for Trump, the Trump campaign is confident that there will be an insurmountable boost in the economy under his presidency that Americans will find jobs that they will leave the Medicaid program, thus driving down the costs of health insurances. Under Trump presidency, illegal immigrants will be left uninsured as they will not be provided with healthcare since the Trump campaign noted the expensive expenditures the U.S. spends on them, $11 billion a year. Essentially, the Trump campaign promises a free market method to increase choices and lowering health insurance rates – factors that the Obamacare apparently lacks.
What I say to Trump’s proposed healthcare plan is a complete disaster in helping propel the United States towards free universal healthcare. The Trump campaign clearly and selfishly neglect the idea that repealing Obamacare will leave 12 millions Americans who are covered under the law to now scramble around for new coverage, which could potentially lead to other obstacles: higher premiums rates that they can’t afford, Americans with pre-existing conditions would face the possibility of paying a higher rate because normally pre-existing conditions serve as red flags to insurance companies to put certain dollar limits on possible preventive screenings, prescriptions, or treatments patients can have access to depending on their health. Worse of all, most Americans will choose the easier, cheaper route: not getting insured at all because, frankly, the incentives of buying health insurance aren’t there anymore like how they were under Obamacare. I say healthcare isn’t a privilege, it’s a right, but it seems like Donald Trump prefers the former.