Remember the tax plan developed by “top economists” that was Trump’s only fully developed economic policy? The one he published on his website in September that would “get us all working” and “make America strong again?”
Yeah, he was just kidding.
After Trump finally released that infamous tax plan, The Economist wrote an analysis:
“The plan burnishes Mr Trump’s Republican credentials by giving high earners whacking tax cuts. Individuals earning more than $150,000 will see their marginal tax rate fall from close to 40% now to 25%, three percentage points lower than under Mr Bush’s plan. Whereas the former Governor of Florida wants merely to double the standard deduction, the amount that can be earned before paying tax, to $11,300, Mr Trump would quadruple it, to $25,000 (or $50,000 for a married couple). This would remove more than half of households from the income tax rolls altogether, he says.
The outdoing does not end there. Mr Trump is more aggressive on corporation tax, too, promising to lower the levy on company profits to 15% rather than 20% under Bush. Furthermore, 15% would be the most any business would pay on their income—including self-employed freelancers.”
They summed up that analysis by calling the plan “twaddle” and suggesting that the “top economists” who wrote it continue to not own up to it, as it was a disastrous plan.
No worries. Trump doesn’t like that tax plan anymore. He’s no longer “into” the rich, according to an interview he did with CNBC.
“’I am not necessarily a huge fan of that,’ he said. ‘I am so much more into the middle class who have just been absolutely forgotten in our country.'”
Congratulations, middle class. Trump is now “into” you. Well, for this month, he is.
After saying that Americans “are paid too much” and should be paid less so that we can “compete” with other countries during one of the GOP debates and then repeating that statement again the next day during an interview, and then immediately retracting that statement when Bernie Sanders called him out on it, Trump has now amended that idea, as well. Now, he agrees that American workers don’t make enough and that the federal minimum wage should be increased.
‘I am open to doing something with it, because I don’t like that,’ Trump told CNN on Wednesday after being asked if he thought the $7.25 minimum wage should be increased.
Trump added that ‘you have to have something that you can live on’ and that his willingness to entertain a wage increase showed he was ‘very different from most Republicans.’ At the same time, he said he would prefer to try to raise wages through economic growth.
Sure, he’s different from most Republicans, or at least he is today. Who knows what he’ll be next week? As Trump himself promised:
“I’m very capable of changing into anything I want to change to.”
Apparently, he is, and that’s what’s so frightening.
To remind us how great the now-not-so-great tax plan was going to be, see the video of the Donald’s press conference in which he released that tax plan just over six months ago below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NoIOUDr5YBo
Featured image via Flikr by Gage Skidmore available under a Creative Commons license
