New Presidency – Term Paper

All eyes around the globe will focus on America after Friday, January 20, 2017, as the new president and Congress are inaugurated into office. Of importance to the discussion is what is expected to happen after a day since, during the campaign period, he promised to deliver his vision for the American people in a day but not the normal 100 days in office. Well, his vision is expected to experience significant challenges related to public policies related to trade, foreign policy, healthcare and climate change. 

Concerning trade, the new presidency is expected to break from the normal Republican commitment to free trade which has been imposing various protectionist policies to the American people to close the economic borders and immediately renegotiate a free trade agreement with Canada and Mexico. Furthermore, participation in the Trans-Pacific Partnership will be canceled and make early trade deals with the UK. This is intended to deepen economic ties between the U.S and other nations while cutting down tariffs and encouraging trade to boost economic development. However, these policies will intensify competition between countries’ labor forces thereby raising numerous debates from bipartisan collaborations. 

The new presidency and Congress may not provide protection to other NATO countries that come under attack. Donald Trump stated that his government would only intervene in these nations fulfill the obligations with the alliance. This indicates that the policy will put conditions on the American defense to their allies. The foreign policy is important towards creating a good rapport with other nations and will generate numerous political and legal debates in the senate.  The bipartisan collaboration involving both republicans and democrats are expected to join hands in the coming years and produce legislation that will contribute to significant reforms to the foreign policy under this new government. 

Efforts put by the previous governments to reform the U.S health care sector and to realize a uniform coverage is expected to enter into high uncertainty. The Congress is expected to move legislation with the aim of undoing various essential elements of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). This is expected to be achieved through budget reconciliation that allows bills to avoid filibusters and proceed without debate thereby passing with at least 51 votes. The policy is important to the American citizens since it provides affordable health care services to over 20 million low-income earners. The house speaker can encourage various states to institute high-risk pools for people with pre-existing medical issues and also provide a flexible tax credit for those purchasing health insurance.

After the inauguration, another public policy that is expected to challenge the new administration is climate change. The president vowed to pull out of the U.S from the Paris agreement on climate change with the aim of mitigating the effects of climate. The previous government has submitted instrument of ratification on the matter through executive agreement. The policy is necessary since the new presidency wants to rekindle the coal industry but the industry has been competing with low-cost natural gas for electricity since that increases gas supply but lowers gas cost hence affecting coal. Mission to amend the Clean Air Act itself with the aim of amending other climate change policies would not be possible since bipartisan collaboration would filibuster.

In a nutshell, the new American new presidency and new Congress will be faced with various public policy issues after the inauguration. The Senate is expected to witness numerous contentious debates couple with many legal appeals before the bills are assent to law. What is fascinating to observe, though, will be when the president signs them into law.