Norton Highlights Three Areas in Trump’s State of the Union Where His Boasts Are Undermined by Reality

WASHINGTON, D.C.—Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) today issued the following statement showing three areas of President Trump's State of the Union address were his rhetoric fell short of the reality of his administration's promises and actions.

"President Trump is getting credit for following his State of the Union script and for a more measured tone than usual. However, a closer look finds policies at odds with the president's admonition that we ‘set aside our differences' and work together.

"After his words to bring us together, Trump went on to brag about his unprecedented action to use presidential power to take away health care from the American people. The people have responded by making Obamacare more popular than ever, despite Trump's attempts to weaken it.

"Trump, naturally, bragged about the Republican corporate tax cuts, though 83 percent of the cuts go to the top one percent, and thousands of ordinary taxpayers will ultimately get tax increases. He bragged about one-time bonuses some are seeing, while analysts predict that the bulk of the cuts will go to dividends and stock buybacks.

"Trump's bragging about infrastructure was the most audacious and unlikely to get either Republican or Democratic support. Trump, who fashions himself a builder, broke with a more than half-century tradition established by President Dwight D. Eisenhower, who created our nationwide network of roads and bridges with 80 percent federal funding. Trump's approach is the opposite—slash federal spending and transfer this national responsibility to state and local governments and to public-private partnerships to spread toll roads across the country. This approach has bipartisan thumbs down.

"After a full year of the Trump presidency, no one expected Democrats to stand up and cheer. But Trump could have delivered a State of the Union address that did not force Democrats to stay in their seats all evening."