It is not every day that a Missourian gets to sit on the steps of the United States Capitol and witness firsthand a Presidential swearing in ceremony. Now, just over a week since the inauguration of our 45th President, Donald J Trump - we have seen his Presidency take more actions in seven days to improve the lives of south central and southeast Missourians than in the entire eight years of the Obama Presidency. As President Trump stated in his Inaugural speech “The time for empty talk is over. Now arrives the hour of action.”
In early December, I outlined for then President – Elect Trump numerous different rules, regulations, agency guidance and memorandums which he could overturn on day one to have a drastic impact on the lives of Missourians. I wrote about rules promulgated as a result of President’s Obama’s failed government takeover of healthcare, regulations which would increase the cost of energy for Missourians, new rules impeding on a farmer’s ability to farm their land freely, recent federal agency memorandums incentivizing millions of illegal immigrants to enter our country, and guidance from agencies infringing on our second amendment rights.
I was pleased to see that on day one, President Trump followed through on many of these same actions items and wasted no time getting to work for the American people. During his first hours at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, President Trump signed an executive order to start the process of unwinding former President Obama’s disastrous health care law. It was the first step towards creating a health care system that provides Americans with the quality health care they deserve, drives down price with competition, and allows folks to see the doctor of their choice free of government interference or mandates. During those first hours President Trump also put a hiring freeze and a regulatory freeze on the very federal agencies that have run amuck with thousands of unelected bureaucrats under the Obama Administration.
On Monday, President Trump took action to defend the life of the unborn by restoring President Reagan’s Mexico City Policy which ensures that American taxpayers are not forced to foot the bill for abortions anywhere in the world. On his second day in office, President Trump put an end to agency bureaucracy and red tape which was delaying the advancement of the Keystone and Dakota Access pipeline projects which will help grow our economy, lower the costs of energy and create thousands of jobs in the process. On Wednesday President Trump signed an executive action to start the process of building a wall along our southern border and ordering those sanctuary cities for illegal immigrants to honor and up hold U.S. law or lose any federal funding.
Gone are the days of having a President in power who promises things on the campaign trail, but never actually delivers on those promises. In the first seven days of his Presidency, Donald Trump has proven that he is a man of his word. The rapid pace we have seen in the first couple of days of Donald Trump’s Presidency isn’t going to slow down anytime soon. This week I met with President Trump in Philadelphia, the birthplace of our great nation, to develop a strategy on how we will work together to build on the tremendous actions he has taken this week to improve the lives of all Americans and return the power back to the people. Our end goal, our end result, is ultimately what President Trump said in his Inauguration speech -“Together, we will make America strong again, we will make America wealthy again, we will make America proud again, we will make America safe again, and yes together, we will make America great again.”
