That's not to say that nothing's been done. Trump filled his Cabinet with men and women dedicated to undermining the regulatory protections of the agencies they are heading.
Ben Carson, neuro-surgeon turned Public Housing Secretary, expressed his contempt for those who failed, unlike himself, to struggle out of poverty -- low motivation.
The Environmental Agency chief is the same person who -- as Oklahoma attorney-general -- sued the agency multiple times when it tried to enforce protections against fracking.
Health Secretary Tom Price is an avowed foe of Obamacare.
From the wrecking crew in the Cabinet it's illustrative to look at the Republican proposal on healthcare now being prepared for a vote in the Senate.
The Republicans have opposed Obamacare (the Affordable Care Act) for seven years since its inception in 2010. And, like the proverbial dog chasing the car, now that they've caught up, they're not quite sure what to do.
They have promised to repeal and replace Obamacare. For what his promises are worth, as a candidate Trump promised that his new plan, Trumpcare, would be better, cheaper, that everyone would be covered and that he would not cut social security, Medicare and Medicaid. That last is important as the current debate is centred there.
Meantime, to understand -- social security is America's superannuation scheme, and Medicare is health insurance for pensioners. Both are funded through tax on earners during their working life.
Medicaid, on the other hand, is a government (read tax) funded programme chiefly for low income people, but that group includes two-thirds of the elderly in nursing homes and half of military veterans who are disabled. Plus children.
Medicaid is at the centre of the current debate.
The programme was expanded under Obamacare in order to provide health insurance coverage for the 46 million people who were uninsured. To pay for that expansion -- which eventually covered an additional 20 million people -- Obama instituted a 3.8 per cent tax on income from investments of people earning more than $250,000 per annum, plus an additional tax of 0.9 per cent of that income for those earning at least $1 million annually.
Republicans wanted to scrap those taxes, saving millionaires an average of $54,000 in taxes. That obvious tax cut for the rich at the expense of the poor, the elderly, and the disabled veterans was so unpopular with constituents of Republican senators up for re-election in 2018 that it was scrapped.
The continuing life of this legislation, variously dubbed a "zombie bill" by partisans, involves some cosmetic changes that would nevertheless, not only roll back the Medicaid expansion of Obamacare but actually decrease the overall federal contribution to Medicaid.
The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office estimates that 15 million people would lose health cover at once and another five million to eight million in a decade. The most vulnerable would be the most hurt.
The nursing home population, unable to pay for their care would have to find another means to live ... or not.
This new Trumpcare would end many services that make the lives of disabled and particularly disabled veterans possible. At present nearly 43 per cent of all children in the United States are Medicaid recipients. Trumpcare would leave more than half of those without cover.
So much for a party which travels under the banner of being pro-life, where it contends life begins with conception. Apparently, after birth you're on your own -- especially if you're old or a disabled veteran or if you're a child who made the bad choice of having impoverished parents.
Jay Kuten is an American-trained forensic psychiatrist who emigrated to New Zealand for the fly fishing. He spent 40 years comforting the afflicted and intends to spend the rest afflicting the comfortable.
