Washington, D.C. — The American people have gotten a raw deal from President Donald Trump’s first 100 days in office, a new analysis from the Center for American Progress shows. Trump’s legislative accomplishments, though meager, will provide businesses with more than $7 billion dollars in giveaways over the next decade while causing a net loss in jobs, millions in reduced wages, and the elimination of important consumer protections.
“Trump and the Republican Congress’ first 100 days have revealed their real priorities: letting corporations set the agenda while hardworking families pay the price,” said Sam Berger, CAP Senior Policy Adviser and author of the analysis. “His campaign promises stand in stark contrast to the proof: Trump has been a boon to big business but a disaster for everyone else.”
The Trump administration thus far has passed little substantive legislation, but it has used the obscure Congressional Review Act, or CRA, a total of 13 times to eliminate protections for everything from worker safety to internet privacy. CAP’s analysis outlines the annual quantifiable effect of regulations repealed during the first 100 days, using Regulatory Impact Analyses—agency analyses that estimate the costs and benefits of issued rules—in order to determine some of the effects of repealing these important protections. CAP finds that the Trump administration’s repeals thus far have provided huge giveaways to big business, which will see annual benefits of at least $700 million. Far from creating jobs or boosting wages, they will have negative effects on hardworking families, including, on an annual basis, a net loss of jobs, $3 million in lost wages, and $57 million in increased costs as a result of higher carbon dioxide emissions.
These figures don’t account for the significant costs of repealing these regulations that are harder to quantify, but CAP’s analysis does include select qualitative effects of regulations repealed during the first 100 days of the Trump administration. The impact of these repeals include decreased worker safety, greater risk of wage theft, and increased exposure to dangerous pollutants—and thanks to the Trump administration and the Republican-controlled Congress, internet service providers can now sell people’s browser history to third parties without their consent.
By comparison, the first 100 days of the Obama administration saw a number of significant accomplishments that saved the economy from the brink of disaster, added jobs, promoted wage equality, provided tax cuts for the middle class, and protected American public lands. The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, reauthorization of the Children’s Health Insurance Program, and the Omnibus Public Land Management Act of 2009, among other legislative accomplishments, brought wide-ranging benefits to the American people, the economy, and the environment.
Click here to read “100 Days of Trump’s Legislation: Giveaways to Big Business at the Expense of Working Families” by Sam Berger.
For more information or to speak with an expert, contact Allison Preiss at [email protected] or 202.478.6331.