WASHINGTON (March 1, 2017)—President Donald Trump's Tuesday night address to a joint session of Congress did little to ease the worries of Maryland's Democratic lawmakers.
Trump's address lacked significant detail, said Rep. Anthony Brown, D-Upper Marlboro, and left him "yearning for more."
"This speech was billed as unity and strength, but the actions of the last 40 days were everything but," Brown said in an interview with Capital News Service. "A speech to a joint session of Congress doesn't erase your 40-day record."
And although the address had a markedly more optimistic tone than the one Trump delivered at his inauguration, Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Kensington, said he remained disappointed.
"The tone of the speech was slightly improved from what we saw in the inaugural address, which was full of 'American carnage' and blood and gore and violent imagery, so that's mildly reassuring," Raskin said in a CNS interview, "but the basic conceptual infrastructure of that speech still had Steve Bannon's imprint all of over it."
For Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer, D-Mechanicsville, the speech sounded more like it belonged on the campaign trail.
"What the American public needs is good policy, not good rhetoric," Hoyer said in a video posted to Twitter shortly after the address.
One of the primary concerns among Maryland Democrats was the absence of concrete domestic policy proposals from Trump's speech, particularly in relation to issues of infrastructure, job creation and health care.
"He has failed to put forward an economic plan or offer a concrete proposal for sustained job creation," Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., said in a statement. "And he failed to drain the swamp in Washington, instead installing Wall Street billionaires in his Cabinet and failing to address serious questions about his campaign's relationship – and his personal business ties – with Russia."
Brown said he believed Trump's lack of a plan for creating more jobs – despite the president's continued insistence that his administration's policies will radically improve the lives of American workers – was a serious concern.
"He took credit for jobs that might come," Brown said. "But he hasn't rolled out a job plan."
He added that Trump's promises to invest big in infrastructure sounded heartening in theory, but the lack of specifics was troubling.
Despite criticism from Maryland's Democrats, House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., called the speech "a home run."
"President Trump delivered a bold, optimistic message to the American people," Ryan said in a statement. "We now have a government unified around a simple, but important principle: Empowering the people - not Washington - is the way to build a better future for our country."
That was not how Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Baltimore, saw it.
"Instead of building on the progress our nation has made in the last eight years, President Trump is going backwards and returning to the failed trickle-down economic policies of the past," the congressman said in a statement.
"President Trump has made it easier for Wall Street to prey on Americans' hard-earned retirement savings; appointed people to key posts in his administration who want to slash Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid; and declared war on Americans' right to health care," Cummings said.
Trump called on Congress to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act during his speech, asking both parties to "save Americans from this imploding Obamacare disaster." He laid out five principles he said should drive the creation of a new healthcare system.
But his failure to elaborate on the details of any replacement plan worried Brown.
"He's had 120 days since Election Day to put together his plan to expand access to health care to more and more Americans," he said. So far, he added, there have been no signs of a concrete plan for a new coverage system.
In the audience sat Ola Ojewumi, a community organizer and women's health advocate. Hoyer invited the Beltsville, Maryland, resident to be his guest at the address.
Ojewumi received a heart and kidney transplant when she was a child. Late in life, she was diagnosed with cancer and "had it not been for the (Affordable Care Act), Ola would have been uninsurable," Hoyer said in a statement.
The healthcare bill enabled Ojewumi to stay on her parents' insurance until she was 26 years old.
"I hope that Ola's story and those of other constituents attending the address will remind Republicans of the harmful impact that repeal would have on Americans across the country," Hoyer said.
Rep. John Delaney, D-Potomac, posted a video to Facebook after the speech, pointing out that Trump didn't mention the "elephant in the room: the situation with Russia."
Raskin also thought there was something missing.
"He could have spent the entire address apologizing to all the judges and members of Congress and citizens that he has maligned and vilified," he said. "There was no apology and there was no real plan for economic progress for people who have been left behind."
Van Hollen said Trump "presented proposals that will be greeted with great optimism by big-money, corporate special interests – but working families are losing out in his new administration."