In the final days of 2017 some people are noticing that Donald Trump has gotten a lot done in his wild first year in the White House.  Tax reform has passed and is signed into law. It has cut corporate and individual taxes. Some people say that the corporations only help the rich, little do they know. Corporations both large and small help us all. They pay taxes and employ people, how does that help the rich? Sure there are a few at the top that get paid big bucks but they keep the company paying taxes and employing people and they are not the super-rich.

Many people have 401k’s which depend on corporation’s profits to help fund their retirement. Some say only fat cats have stock but I’ll bet most of our readers have some or maybe a mutual fund. It may not be much when you’re young but it’s a big thing as you get nearer to retirement. The fat cats are really few, numbering in the thousands out of 330 million and they pay taxes too, a lot of taxes. The people who complain, how many could run a big company successfully?

A couple of other little things were slipped into the tax bill like freeing up oil drilling and completing pipelines. Yes, lots of environmentalists and some groups who were backed by foreign oil companies are the ones who complain and yes, they are not the ones getting the new jobs created. Although not in the tax bill, the Presidents team has rolled back hundreds if not thousands of EPA regulations that were killing jobs. The fact is that the big polluters have already been reeled in and the new regulations were aimed at small businesses and farmers.

Repealing the Obamacare individual mandate itself is a great accomplishment. Think about it, people are required to buy insurance even if they don’t want it. What happened to American freedoms? This was done to force people who don’t need or want insurance to buy it so that others can get it cheaper. Some will say we must help the unfortunate among us. Yes I agree, but some do not agree and we should not force them to pay for others. Is that not what churches and charities do? If you want to support others go ahead and get your check book, but do not force others.

A few other things he has done have gone almost unnoticed, like destroying the ISIS caliphate in Syria and Iraqi. He said he would do it and it has been done. Some will say it’s the armed forces that did it and they are right once Trump turned them loose. Remember before this year how they were massacring Christians and others and we drew red lines and did nothing?  This time missiles flew. Finally we have a President that just says “Get ‘er Done”, how refreshing.

Then there are the courts that moved to the left in the past and now the tide has turned and the constitution rules, not the progressive agenda. Although still to be decided by the Supreme Court the right of the President to protect our boarders is slowly being re-affirmed.

Yes, there is a litany of complaints against the President yet somehow he is getting things done. The special counsel investigation into the supposed Trump-Russia collusion has gone nowhere except to charge some people on unrelated offences. Despite it all, Trump has racked up an enviable record of first-year accomplishments.

In the coming year Trump will be reminding us all of how much he did in his first year. Maybe that will be enough to keep Republicans in control of the House and Senate; although history indicates it may be close. Trump’s second-year agenda is an infrastructure bill and welfare reform. He did not say Medicare or Social Security reforms which are programs we paid for but still may need some looking at. Welfare is a different bird, these are people who we are helping and they mostly did not paid for anything.

During the campaign, Trump promised he would hire only the “best people” if he were to win the White House. Look at the people who are now on staff, that indicates he is hiring mostly business people who know how to run something not political hanger-on’s. He has recruited first rate people like: John Kelly, Nikki Haley, Mike Pompeo, James Mattis, H.R. McMaster and more. Yes there has been some firings and that is what a good President should do, fire those who don’t do their job.

For next year he will need more of the best people if he is to make next Christmas as significant as his first. And the problem is in the political charged atmosphere of Washington. Yet all things are possible at Christmas.