EDITORIAL: Sunday Trump works hard for jobs, Obamacare proposal looks promising

Jan. 28--Has it really been just one week since Donald Trump was sworn in as the 45th president of the United States?

What happened to the honeymoon?

Suffice it to say that the United States has never seen a president like this one.

He is shaking up Washington as he promised. He started making an impact on jobs before he took office.

Trump is using the "bully pulpit," a term coined for President Teddy Roosevelt, to persuade American companies to add jobs on American shores.

Ford, Lockheed Martin, Amazon, Sprint, Carrier, General Motors and Walmart have announced plans to hire and invest in the United States, reported The New York Times.

Ford dropped plans to build a $1.6 billion assembly plant in Mexico. And Ford will invest $700 million in a facility to build electric cars in the U.S., Gerald Seib of The Wall Street Journal reported.

Fiat Chrysler will invest $1 billion and create 2,000 jobs in the industrial Midwest, the sector of the company that turned the election for Trump.

GM alone announced $1 billion in new investments that would create or retain 1,500 jobs. It is moving production of car axles from Mexico to the United States.

Some of these moves had been planned. So maybe Trump is just lucky. The American families who have these good jobs don't care.

As Trump told Seib, "I'm setting a tone for hundreds of companies."

Also Trump has pressed companies to lower prices they are charging for new military aircraft and a new Air Force One.

LOOKING FOR CONSENSUS

Though the nation is divided today, everyone can agree that good jobs are vital in America.

Even The Washington Post editorial board, which did not endorse Trump, found areas of common ground with the new president.

The first is corporate tax reform. Tax rates are too high.

As Sen. Marco Rubio has stated, there is so much U.S. capital offshore, it's the equivalent of the economy of Russia.

Also the nation should be investing more in infrastructure: roads, bridges, mass transit, water and sewer facilities, airports and the electric grid.

On education, the federal government should make it clear that American students now are competing internationally and that our standards should reflect that.

Transparency rather than arm twisting is the key here. Also providing choices for low-income parents whose students attend failing schools is vital.

Parents have no time to wait. Too often by the time a school is turned around, the student has graduated.

OBAMACARE REFORM

As this page has insisted from the start, the Affordable Care Act did too little to control costs and has a fatal flaw -- no bipartisan support.

Republicans have an opportunity this time to reform Obamacare in a way that builds broad support. And since the Republicans only hold 52 seats in the Senate -- fewer than the 60 votes needed to override a filibuster -- they likely will be required to do it right.

One promising proposal, The Patient Freedom Act, was just announced by Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine and Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La.

The bill reflects the incredible diversity of the nation. Consider the states where Barack Obama has lived: Hawaii in high school, Massachusetts in law school and Illinois as an adult.

Under the Patient Freedom Act, a state that likes Obamacare can keep it.

A second option would allow states to craft more private market systems that would use federal tax credits, cost-sharing subsidies and the federal match for Medicaid expansion.

Federal funds would go directly to patients in the form of Roth Savings Accounts.

A third option would allow states to design and regulate insurance markets without any federal aid.

Ohio Gov. John Kasich, in a column in Time magazine, supports replacing the individual mandate with continuous coverage protections, relaxing the age ratings and dialing back benefit requirements.

Ohio has expanded Medicaid with private managed care plans that reduced the growth of Medicaid in a fiscally responsible way.

This reform must take place carefully; however, Trump's initial executive order instructing federal agencies to grant relief from Obamacare was too vague and threw uncertainty into an already failing system as major insurers are pulling back or pulling out.

Nearly one-third of all U.S. counties have only one insurer in the federal marketplace.

This is one example in which the words of the new president have an impact. As much as we would like to dismiss some of Trump's more adolescent tweets, the president's words must be taken seriously.

rough start with media

For instance, Trump's continued claim that there was massive voter fraud in the presidential election comes with no credible evidence.

The news media, Trump's new whipping boy, has an obligation to continue to report the news aggressively and accurately, to take the high ground even when it's difficult.

The relationship got off to a rough start when Trump's press spokesman, Sean Spicer, blasted reporting on the inauguration crowds and refused to take questions though some of his statements were inaccurate.

Subsequent news conferences during the week had a more traditional give and take. Though sometimes strained, at least they were more productive.

There is no doubt that the Women's March that took place after the inauguration illustrated an impressive example of the First Amendment in action -- peaceful assemblies to petition the government.

Trump's second tweet on the march was a positive step: "Peaceful protests are a hallmark of our democracy. Even if I don't always agree, I recognize the rights of people to express their views."

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