There are two things you can count on from Donald Trump: (1) virtually everything he says is either a flat-out lie or an exaggeration, and (2) he will always take credit for someone else’s achievements. Case in point: Trump’s “promise” to “expand treatment for those who have become so badly addicted” to opioids.
Since announcing his run for the White House, Trump has made over 100 “promises” – only five of which have been kept, and only one of which was of any possible benefit to the working people of this country – which was pulling the U.S. out of the deeply-unpopular Trans-Pacific Partnership (although we must wonder what was in it for him personally).
There was one other promise The Donald apparently made that has been kept – so he says. That was to increase funding for opioid addiction treatment. In a dismal budget proposal intended solely to destroy the middle class and steal the nation’s wealth for the benefit of himself and his billionaire cronies, the $500 million earmarked for opioid treatment next year was one bright spot in a very dark agenda. It proudly proclaimed that there would be
“…a $500 million increase above 2016 enacted levels to expand opioid misuse prevention efforts and to increase access to treatment and recovery services to help Americans who are misusing opioids get the help they need.”
But it turns out that funding was already in place and was approved last year ago under the Obama Administration as part of the 21st Century Cures Act. That provision of the law provided a total of $1 billion over the next two years to fund opioid treatment programs across the nation. Finally, the crisis of opioid addiction (in which Big Pharma has been playing no small part) will be treated as a disease requiring compassionate treatment, not a criminal offense demanding severe and merciless punishment.
That alone should have been a tip off. Trump may be many things, but compassionate is not one of them. Between the people he has surrounded himself with, such as jack-booted “good ol’ boy” Jeff Session and pseudo-Christian Talibaners Mike Pence and Betsy DeVos, and his enthusiastic support for the private prison industry, it is obvious that if Trump and his cronies had their way, nothing he accomplished in the White House would benefit anyone other than himself.
Nonetheless, Trump has to keep up appearances. This is not the first time he has taken credit for his predecessor’s accomplishments. On March 24th, Trump gleefully tweeted:
“Today, I was thrilled to announce a commitment of $25 BILLION & 20K AMERICAN JOBS over the next 4 years. THANK YOU Charter Communications!”
Earlier this week, Trump issued the following tweet:
“Big announcement by Ford today. Major investment to be made in three Michigan plants. Car companies coming back to U.S. JOBS! JOBS! JOBS!”
In the wake of that, Trump’s “adviser” Kellyanne Conway tweeted:
“Two weeks after @POTUS met with auto execs…Ford plans ‘significant’ investments in 3 plants https://t.co/HRjFkZx0ft via @detroitnews #jobs.”
Well, here’s the truth: the deal with Charter Communications was made with the FCC under Obama, and approved almost a year ago. And Ford Motors’ announcement about investing in new, domestic manufacturing facilities and adding 8,500 jobs here at home? That was made in 2015.
The fact of the matter is that the Free World is now under the so-called “leadership” of an increasingly senile, spoiled, delusional, self-aggrandizing egomaniacal man-child who never earned one damned thing on his own, has never been held accountable for anything, never taken personal responsibility for anything, who has had it handed to him on a golden platter throughout his life – and whose often dubious “accomplishments” are due to the efforts of others.
Parents, be warned: Trump is what happens when you fail to raise your children without setting rules or boundaries.
