[Ed Note: What follows is the official press release from President Donald Trump at the White House. It marks the official stance of the United States pulling out of the Paris Agreement. Though there is certainly a political aspect to this, I would like to see if we can try to avoid political bickering and focus discussion on the actual details of the press release. See, also, our previous coverage, Report: Trump Plans to Exit Paris Climate Agreement. --martyb]
From the desk of President Donald J. Trump
For Immediate Release
June 01, 2017
President Trump Puts American Jobs First
“Our government rushed to join international agreements where the United States pays the costs and bears the burdens while other countries get the benefit and pay nothing.” – President Donald J. Trump
ALREADY THE WORLD’S ENERGY LEADER: The United States had already become the leader in cutting CO2 emissions while still leading in oil & gas production.
HARMFUL TO THE AMERICAN PEOPLE: The Paris Climate Accord could cost the United States economy millions of jobs and trillions of dollars in economic output over the next several decades.
SHOULDERING THE BURDEN: Under the Paris Climate Accord, the United States would carry the burden while other countries would get the benefits.
INEFFECTIVE: Even if every nation fully complied with the Paris Climate Accord, it would barely impact the climate.
PROMISE TO THE AMERICAN PEOPLE: President Trump is fulfilling his promise to the American people to stop international agreements that disadvantage the United States.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Friday June 02 2017, @03:11PM (1 child)
Are we going to do some sort of accurate accounting here with a comparison to previous presidents (particularly Obama, who got a huge pass on his promises)? Or are we going to keep saying "But what else have the Romans done for us?" It seems pretty disingenuous to be complaining about promises not kept when Trump is only about a tenth of the way through his term and we're not considering what level of promises broken has been accepted in the past.
Always good advice, but we don't give presidents magic wands with which to fulfill promises. Promises can be broken simply because the president, no matter how hard they try, simply doesn't have the power or political backing to do it.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 02 2017, @07:12PM
Feel free to grade on a curve, if that makes you feel better. It may be unrealistic to expect a president to do substantially better than his peers, but I don't believe that low expectations inspire the best performance.
The accountability of a politician's promises will be mainly determined by the consequences of not keeping them. If someone makes unrealistic promises, then they should also be held accountable for that as well.