Amy Klobuchar: Donald Trump's presidency of broken promises is further dividing America 'When we’re straight with the American people, we can build an even bigger coalition with an optimistic economic and justice agenda for this country.'

Amy Klobuchar | Register Opinion contributor

From town halls to fish fries, debate stages to Hall of Fame dinners, we have talked a lot about changing our policies in this election. But I believe we need to change the tone in our politics, too.

We have a president who wakes up every day thinking about how he can divide this country. We need to stop the mean tweets, divisive attacks and broken promises. We need to look up from our phones and listen to each other. And we need to start working together. Because I believe there’s so much more that unites us than divides us.

I don’t want to be president of half of America — I want to be president for all of America. I know that our work doesn’t end on Election Day but begins on Inauguration Day. And if we are going to be able to get anything done to move our country forward, we need to bring people with us.

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That has been my approach in the Senate — where I’ve passed more than 100 bills into law as the lead Democrat — and it’s my approach in this campaign. It’s why I have a plan outlining nearly 140 things I will get done in my first 100 days in office. And it’s why I’m traveling to all 99 of Iowa’s counties, including the rural areas and the urban areas, the blue counties and the red counties, and yes, the Vikings bars and the Packers bars.

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Here’s what I’ve been hearing: People across Iowa and the country believed that President Donald Trump had their backs, but he has let them down with one broken promise after another.

Consider our farmers. When President Trump came to Council Bluffs in June, he declared that “every day of my presidency, we will never stop fighting for our farmers.” That promise didn’t last very long. Less than two months later, he folded to Big Oil and gave the Environmental Protection Agency the green light to issue an additional 31 biofuel waivers that are crippling our farmers and the biofuel industry in Iowa.

Another broken promise? President Trump said on Fox News that he would lower prescription drug prices so much that “your head will spin.” People’s heads are spinning — but that’s because drugs still cost so much. During the first 14 months of his presidency, the cost of more than 2,500 drugs increased by double digits.

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After he signed the tax bill, President Trump told his wealthy friends at Mar-a-Lago, “You all just got a lot richer.” Instead of focusing on bringing down the costs on everything from college to cable bills, he passed a bill that helped the rich while adding more than a trillion dollars in debt.

It’s time to end the broken promises and deliver results. We need a president who will tell the truth and only make promises she can keep. That’s why I’ve been clear about how I will pay for the policies I’ve proposed and how I will get them done. That’s the difference between a plan and a pipe dream.

I believe that when we’re straight with the American people, we can build an even bigger coalition with an optimistic economic and justice agenda for this country.

An agenda that will bridge the rural-urban divide and make sure that kids who grow up in rural Iowa are able to stay and build a life. An agenda that will meet the challenges that affect all of us, from reducing the cost of health care and prescription drugs, to tackling climate change, to passing gun safety laws and fixing our education system. An agenda that will move our country forward toward an America as good as its promise.

But the only way we do that is if we come together. Let’s cross the river of our divides and walk across our sturdy bridge to a higher ground in our politics — and our country.

Amy Klobuchar is a U.S. senator from Minnesota and a Democratic presidential candidate. This column originally appeared in the Des Moines Register. Follow Klobuchar on Twitter: @amyklobuchar