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Donald Trump on Government Reform
2000 Reform Primary Challenger for President
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Government scrutiny is greatest threat to American Dream
Most of us think the American Dream is a birthright, but without constant care and vigilance, it can and will be whittled down to nothing. The threatening agent is not some foreign power, but people who don’t understand the proper relationship between
the public and private arenas. In other words, the greatest threat to the American Dream is the idea that dreamers need close government scrutiny and control. Job one for us is to make sure the public sector does a limited job, and no more.In the
1970s in New York City, reckless regulators under Mayor Beame were running the show [resulting in] municipal bonds worth less than Confederate money. I learned from experiences [like that] just how hard it is for normal, sane, earnest Americans to
make their dreams come true when they have to confront mule-headed, but powerful burons-a buron being defined as a cross between a bureaucrat and a moron. In my opinion, burons are opportunity destroyers. They’re guilty of what I call Dreamicide.
Source: The America We Deserve, by Donald Trump, p. 44-45
, Jul 2, 2000
Ban soft money; but allow unlimited personal contributions
Our message to Congress should be clear. Take your soft money and. ban it. My second reform would be to allow unlimited personal contributions. The cynics will be steaming over that idea, but they know in their hearts that the philosophy behind it is
untouchable, because it is based on personal choice. This puts at the heart of the process the individual American. But they are convinces that if individuals were allowed to give as much as they desired, guys like me would take over politics. They
believe in personal freedom all right, so long as guys like Trump are kept in harness. Let’s be sensible. If a huge expenditure of personal funds were a guarantee of political victory, our current president would be either Steve Forbes or Ross Perot.
The third leg to the Trump political reforms is also simple and vital. I believe that Americans should know immediately who is giving what to whom. If we have full participation, we should also have full and fast disclosure.
Source: The America We Deserve, by Donald Trump, p.232-34
, Jul 2, 2000
Government should do public works & safety & little else
Common sense tell us that the two basic principles of governing should work anywhere they are applied. First: Get government out of activities it can’t do well. (A list of thing government doesn’t do well is a very long list.)Second: Get government
back in the business of providing for public convenience (transportation, public works) and safety (police and firefighters), and make sure it does so efficiently. Then judge its efforts by visible, definable results and fine-tune as needed.
Source: The America We Deserve, by Donald Trump, p. 60
, Jul 2, 2000
Rebuilt Wollman Rink in 4 months; city failed for 6 years
For nearly seven years I watched from the window of my office as the city tried to rebuild Wollman Ice-Skating Rink in Central Park. At the end of that time, millions of dollars had been wasted and the job was farther from being completed than when the
work began. They were all set to rip out the concrete and start over when I finally couldn’t stand it anymore, and I offered to do it myself. The job took 4 months to complete at a fraction of the city’s cost.I discovered that the city’s incompetence
had extended to every imaginable detail, large and small. One week after I’d made my deal to take over rebuilding the rink, a city report was released on mistakes made over the past six years. The report provided an astounding chronology of sloppiness,
indecision, incompetence, and stupidity, but it came to absolutely no conclusions about who was responsible for the fiasco and what could be done to avoid such failures in the future. If it weren’t so pathetic, it would have been almost comical.
Source: The Art of the Deal, by Donald Trump, p.43 & 204
, Jul 2, 1987
Page last updated: May 31, 2012