Page 12A
NATION/WORLD
East Oregonian
Saturday, January 21, 2017
On first day, Trump signs health care executive order
Associbated Press
WASHINGTON — President
Donald Trump quickly assumed
the mantle of the White House on
Friday, making his first executive
order one aimed at his predeces-
sor’s signature health care law and
swearing in members of his national
security team to his Cabinet.
Hours after delivering a stinging
rebuke of the political status quo in
his inaugural address, Trump sat at
the president’s formal desk in the
Oval Office as he signed the order
that White House chief of staff
Reince Priebus said was aimed at
“minimizing the economic burden”
of the “Obamacare” law.
The order notes that Trump
intends to seek the “prompt repeal”
of the law and it directs federal
agencies not to issue regulations
that would expand the law’s reach.
But in the meantime, it allows
the Health and Human Services
Department and other federal
agencies to delay implementing any
piece of the law that might impose a
“fiscal burden” on states, health care
providers, families or individuals.
Health care experts said the
order signaled the Trump adminis-
tration’s interest in unwinding the
law as much as possible through
administrative means. But they
cautioned it could take weeks or
months to discern the full impact of
Trump’s opening day action.
Moments later, Vice President
Mike Pence administered the oath
of office to Defense Secretary
James Mattis and Homeland Secu-
rity Secretary John Kelly, the first
members of Trump’s Cabinet to
clear Senate confirmation.
The swearing-in ceremonies
came amid a hectic set of activity
late Friday, before Trump was to
attend three inaugural balls. As
Trump signed the paperwork, the
White House announced Priebus
had sent a memorandum to agen-
cies and departments outlining
guidelines for slowing regulations.
Asked about his first day as
AP Photo/Evan Vucci
President Donald Trump, flanked by Vice President Mike Pence and Chief of Staff Reince Priebus, signs
his first executive order on health care on Friday in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington.
president, Trump said, “It was busy
but good — a beautiful day.”
Although Trump campaigned on
a detailed 18-point plan of things
to do on Day One, he has since
backed off some of his promised
speed, downplaying the importance
of a rapid-fire approach to complex
issues that may involve negotiations
with Congress or foreign leaders.
Trump has said that he expects
Monday to be the first big workday,
his effective Day One.
On Friday, he switched between
the official business of governing
and the pageantry of his inaugura-
tion, making his first official moves
as president in an ornate room steps
from the Senate floor. Flanked by
Pence and congressional leaders
before his congressional luncheon,
Trump praised each of his Cabinet
nominees as he signed the papers
formalizing their nominations. He
also engaged in banter with his
new congressional rivals, including
Senate Democratic leader Chuck
Schumer of New York and House
Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi of
California.
Trump also signed a procla-
mation declaring a national day
of patriotism, according to a tweet
from White House spokesman Sean
Spicer.
Priebus’ memo says that agencies
shouldn’t submit any regulations to
be published in the Federal Register
unless a Trump-selected agency
head approves it. That appears to
mean that some regulations that
had been approved by President
Barack Obama’s administration
would be halted. It also freezes any
regulations that are already in the
pipeline to be published and allows
time for other pending regulations
to be reviewed by Trump’s admin-
istration.
The memo is similar to one that
Obama’s chief of staff issued the
day Obama was inaugurated in
2009.
Before Mattis could be nomi-
nated, Trump had to sign a bill
passed by Congress last week
granting a one-time exception from
federal law barring former U.S.
service members who have been out
of uniform for less than seven years
from holding the top Pentagon job.
The restriction is meant to preserve
civilian control of the military.
Mattis, 66, retired from the
Marine Corps in 2013. Hours later,
he was confirmed by the Senate
as Trump watched his inaugural
parade from a stand outside the
White House. The Senate later
confirmed retired Gen. John Kelly
to lead the Homeland Security
Department.
There were others signs his new
government was up and running.
Federal websites and agencies
immediately began reflecting the
transfer of power, and WhiteHouse.
gov was revamped for Trump’s
policy priorities as pages about
LGBT rights and the Obama
administration’s climate change
plan were eliminated.
Shortly after Trump became
president, the Department of
Housing and Urban Development
suspended the Obama admin-
istration’s planned reduction of
mortgage insurance premium rates,
a move that had been intended to
make buying a home more afford-
able.
More
significant
policy
announcements are expected in the
early days of the Trump administra-
tion.
Trump’s spokesman has said
the president intends to withdraw
from the 12-nation Trans-Pacific
Partnership deal, which he views
as detrimental to U.S. businesses
and workers. He has also promised
to renegotiate the two-decades-old
Clinton era North American Free
Trade Agreement or withdraw from
it.
Given Trump’s opposition to
Obama’s immigration actions, he
could also cancel the Deferred
Action for Childhood Arrivals
program, or DACA, which has
protected about 750,000 young
immigrants from deportation. The
program also offered those immi-
grants work permits.
Trump also faces an early choice
of naming a Supreme Court justice
to fill the vacancy left by the late
Justice Antonin Scalia. Trump has
said he will announce a nominee in
about two weeks.
Other issues poised to receive
early action include energy, where
Trump is likely to undo regulations
on oil drilling and coal, and cyberse-
curity, where he has already said he
will ask for a report on the strength
of the nation’s cyber defenses
within 90 days of taking office.
Obama exits the presidency voicing optimism World jittery about
WASHINGTON (AP) — Closing
out a barrier-breaking chapter in history,
former President Barack Obama left the
White House on Friday much the way
he entered it eight years ago: insisting
Americans have reason for optimism
despite the national sense of unease.
He was gracious to President Donald
Trump to the end, warmly welcoming
his successor to the home where he
raised his daughters. Yet to those fearful
about Trump’s presidency, Obama
suggested it would be a mere blip.
“This is just a little pit stop,” Obama
told supporters just before departing
Washington. “This is not a period, this
is a comma in the continuing story of
building America.”
Obama leaves the national stage as
a widely popular figure, with his poll
numbers approaching 60 percent. He’s
being replaced by the least popular
president in four decades, polls show —
a reality on display in Trump’s low-key
inauguration. On the National Mall, far
fewer showed up than the throng that
attended Obama’s 2009 inauguration,
and some protesters downtown hurled
bricks and broke windows in a show
of defiance. Many others demonstrated
peacefully.
Left unspoken in Obama’s final
hours was the unpleasant reality that
his successor has pledged to reverse
much, if not most, of what he accom-
plished. That has raised the prospect
that Obama’s major lasting legacy may
be as a cultural icon: the first black
president, who ushered the country into
a new era in which gays can marry,
marijuana is legal in more places than
ever and white people will soon be a
minority.
Yet inside the White House, the
Obama imprint that once appeared
indelible suddenly seemed more
fleeting. Photos of him and his family
were taken down from the walls,
leaving big, white voids that seemed to
beckon the new president to make “the
people’s house” his own.
Obama’s staffers left one reminder
on the wall near a West Wing entrance:
a collection of newspaper front pages
from Obama’s proudest moments,
including the day he signed the Afford-
able Care Act and the day the Senate
confirmed his nomination of the first
Hispanic Supreme Court justice.
Speaking to his former aides at
Joint Base Andrews after Trump’s
swearing-in, Obama sought to reassure
those who toiled on his behalf that
it was all worth it, no matter what
Trump’s ‘America
first’ inaugural speech
AP Photo/Steve Helber
Former President Barack Obama and his wife Michelle wave to the
crowd as they board an Air Force jet to depart Andrews Air Force base in
Andrews Air Force Base on Friday.
Trump might do. He said
stripped of the Air Force
his supporters had defied
One moniker as it ferried
the skeptics who “didn’t
the now-former president
think we could pull it off,”
for the last time.
invoking themes from his
When Obama took
campaign.
office in 2009, few Ameri-
“You proved the power
cans had an iPhone, which
— Barack Obama had just been introduced.
of hope,” Obama said.
If there were hard
Nearly 49 million Ameri-
feelings toward Trump, Obama didn’t cans had no health insurance, a number
let on. He sat stoically as Trump, in that’s fallen to 28 million. Unemploy-
his inaugural address, offered a bleak ment, now 4.7 percent, was nearly 8
assessment of the state of the country percent and climbing. The national
after eight years of Obama’s leadership. debt was about $10.6 trillion, and has
And at the White House, he and Mrs. jumped under Obama to just under $20
Obama tried to gently coach Trump and trillion.
his wife on the mechanics of presiden-
His presidency started with a burst
tial pageantry. When Melania Trump of legislative activity — the economic
presented Mrs. Obama with a gift stimulus, his health care overhaul —
just as they were expected to pose for that he would never again be able to
photos, Mrs. Obama looked left, then replicate. Partisan resistance to him
right, for someone to hand it to before quickly hardened, and by the time his
Obama himself eventually walked it to second term started, Obama had mostly
a nearby aide.
assented to the reality that his best
On his last day in office, Obama left hopes to accomplish anything were
a letter to Trump in the Oval Office, in through executive action and foreign
keeping with presidential tradition. He policy.
signed one last bill, codifying a govern-
The next time voters had their say,
ment fellowship program he’d created, they chose Obama’s opposite.
and was given a gift by the residential
But Obama tried to stay optimistic
staff: a pair of flags that flew above the until the very end, even as former
White House on the first and last days staffers hoisted their children on their
of his presidency.
shoulders to see him off.
Vice President Joe Biden accompa-
“Michelle and I, we’ve just been
nied the Obamas and the Trumps to the your front-men and women,” Obama
swearing-in, then departed Washington, said. “We have been the face, some-
in his characteristically down-home times the voice, out front on the TV
style, by Amtrak train. Obama and screen in front of a microphone, but this
his family headed to a vacation in has never been about us. It has always
California on the presidential plane, been about you.”
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“You proved
the power
of hope.”
President
Donald
Trump’s inaugural speech
promised “America first”
policy, but offered no
specifics about America’s
place in the world.
AFGHANS
DISAP-
POINTED, HOPEFUL
Like many in the Afghan
capital of Kabul, restaurant
owner Mohammad Nahim
watched the presidential
inauguration ceremonies
but was disappointed to
not hear any mention of
Afghanistan.
“Trump did not mention
a word about Afghanistan in
his speech and the salaries
of the Afghan army and
police are paid by the U.S.,”
he said. He added that if the
U.S. stops helping Afghan-
istan, “our country will
again become a sanctuary to
terrorists. I hope Trump will
not forget Afghanistan.”
MEXICO RESPONDS
Perhaps no country was
watching the speech more
closely than Mexico. Trump
has made disparaging
remarks about immigrants
who come to the United
States illegally and sought
to pressure companies not
to set up shop in Mexico by
threatening a border tariff
on goods manufactured
there and exported to the
United States.
Ricardo Anaya Cortes,
president of the conserva-
tive opposition National
Action Party, called for
“the unity of all Mexicans,
unity in the face of this
protectionist, demagogic
and protectionist speech we
just heard. Unity against
that useless wall, against
deportations, against the
blockade of investment.”
TOKYO CONCERN
Some Tokyo residents
are worried that Trump’s
“America first” policy will
usher in an era of populism
and protectionism at the
expense of the rest of the
world.
Tadashi Gomibuchi, who
works in the manufacturing
industry, recorded Trump’s
inauguration speech over-
night as he was keen to hear
what the new president had
to say.
“Trump is trying to
make big changes to the
way things are. Changes
are good sometimes, but
when America, the most
powerful, loses stability ...
it’s a grave concern,” he
said. “If you take his words
literally, it may destabilize
the world going forward
and I’m really worried. I
hope things will lead to a
soft landing.”
CHINA BRACES FOR
TROUBLE AHEAD
A Chinese state-run
nationalist tabloid, the
Global Times, says Presi-
dent Trump’s inauguration
speech indicates that the
U.S. and China would inev-
itably face trade tensions.
The newspaper said in
a Saturday commentary
following Trump’s inau-
guration that “dramatic
changes” lay ahead for
the U.S. and the global
economic order.
“Undoubtedly,
the
Trump administration will
be igniting many ‘fires’ on
its front door and around
the world. Let’s wait and
see when it will be China’s
turn,” it said.
The paper noted that
Trump blamed foreign trade
policies for failing to put
“America first,” and said
trade tensions between the
U.S. and China seemed
“inevitable within the four
years ahead.”
Zhang Lifan drew a
contrast between Trump’s
focus on domestic issues
and Chinese President Xi
Jinping’s emphasis on inter-
national cooperation.
GRANT FUNDING
Requests for grant funding for projects that promote
health and wellness in West Umatilla and Morrow
county communities are still being accepted for
spring funding. Application
forms are available on line
at www.gshealth.org or by
calling 541-667-3405.
Spring grant deadline
is January 31, 2017