WASHINGTON—More jobs and economic growth. Less crime and poverty. New roads and bridges. “A nation of miracles.”
President Donald J. Trump on Tuesday night offered a sweeping vision of the many ways in which he wants to improve the United States, but he said little about his plans for achieving those ambitious goals.
Trump once again promised to transform America’s trading relationships with foreign countries, toward a goal of “fair trade”.
But Trump did not explain how his administration would pursue that goal. One month into his presidency, he has pulled out of a trade deal negotiated by the Obama administration, but he has not taken any formal steps toward renegotiating existing deals nor making new ones.
Trump also reiterated his desire for major changes in the tax code that would cut corporate taxation and provide “massive tax relief for the middle class”.
But the president did not describe what changes he would like to see. Instead of a plan, Trump on Tuesday articulated a general principle: “We must create a level playing field for American companies and our workers.”
As part of potential tax legislation, congressional Republicans are discussing a significant overhaul of the way corporate income is counted. Trump and others in his administration have at times appeared to embrace the idea, known as border adjustment, but there was no endorsement on Tuesday night.
Similarly, Trump once again proposed a $1-trillion investment in rebuilding the nation’s infrastructure. He described this effort in grand terms.
“Crumbling infrastructure will be replaced with new roads, bridges, tunnels, airports and railways, gleaming across our very, very beautiful land,” he said. But here, too, details were in short supply.
Trump said only that the effort would be financed from a mix of private and public sources, and that it “will be guided by two core principles: Buy American, and hire American”.
He also offered one specific example: a requirement that American pipelines be made with American steel. Trump’s wide-ranging speech touched on many of the problems in American life and promised solutions—but details were in short supply.
He promised to “restart the engine of the American economy”. The American economy is in the midst of one of the longest periods of continuous growth in the nation’s history, though the pace of growth has been tepid.
He promised to stop drugs “from pouring into our country”.
He described the low quality of public education as “the civil-rights issue of our time”, and he called for legislation to fund “school choice for disadvantaged youth,” meaning that some students would receive vouchers they could use to pay tuition at private schools. But he did not define which students should get such vouchers, nor what would be done for the students left in public schools. Trump did offer specific examples of his commitment to reduce regulation. He said that he had stopped one of the regulations “that threaten the future and livelihood of our great coal miners,” referring to a rule that restricted the dumping of mining debris in streams. He also noted his executive order requiring federal agencies to offset the cost of each new regulation by eliminating at least two existing rules. And Trump called for changes to expedite the approval of new medications, addressing what he described as a “slow and burdensome approval process” that prevents potentially lifesaving drugs from reaching people who are dying.
If regulations are reduced, he said, “our children will grow up in a nation of miracles.”
There is an inherent trade-off between speed and safety in the drug approval process, and the proper balance is the subject of a long-running debate. The government wants to prevent harmful drugs from entering the marketplace, so it sometimes delays the availability of helpful drugs. Trump did not say how far he thought the balance should be shifted toward greater speed.
Image credits: Doug Mills/The New York Times