Wednesday, April 26, 2017

Trump Tax and National Debt Increase Plan

What do you think of the latest crazy idea by POTUS?
I just want to know where the Fed spending cuts are to pay for this....
Thoughts?

CNN Trump Tax Plan
MSN Trump Tax Plan
CNN Trump Tax Plan Frustrates Some in GOP
Fox News Trump Massive Cuts

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

The argument is that lower taxes will lead to greater economic activity. I don't think that's been our experience, but Trump, for whom this will mean hundreds of millions of dollars in lower taxes, it's worth a try.

--Hiram

Anonymous said...

It's important to remember that Trump is first and foremost a dealmaker. Yesterday's proposal was pretty much a statement of an initial bargaining position. I don't think it has anything to do with any policy the administration might be proposing or anything to do with what anyone with the power to conclude a deal might accept.

In any negotiation, it's important to distinguish between being difficult, and being effective. Trump is trying to be cagy about the deal, but the problem he is having is that the folks he is dealing with are far more experienced in these matters, and far more knowledgeable. It's also the case that Trump has no leverage over them, and that doesn't help.

In the helth care debate, Trump made a number of very specific promises during the campaign. H promise that coverage would be wider, the costs lower, with lower deductibles. During the actual discussions, those promises seemed to play no role, not even as positions a tough negotiator was willing to negotiate away. Is he going to be firmer and more effective in tax negotiations? Particularly when people like me will argue that he is trying to borrow money to finance tax cuts for his cronies and himself?

--Hiram

jerrye92002 said...

"I don't think that's been our experience,..."

I think it HAS, and it makes eminent good sense why that should be so. Consider just the $250 billion annually spend complying with this monstrous, incomprehensible tax code. Surely saving a chunk of that would boost economic activity.

Anonymous said...

I think it HAS, and it makes eminent good sense why that should be so. Consider just the $250 billion annually spend complying with this monstrous, incomprehensible tax code. Surely saving a chunk of that would boost economic activity.

Our experience is that the economy can thrive in the high tax era of Clinton and Obama, and can collapse in the low tax eras of the Bush's. Now there are lots of ways to rationalize that historical experience, but that's what has happened. You notice the guys in charge of the policy are paper shufflers, not folks who actually built an industry. Curiously, the people who did that, who created wealth on a massive scale, are not the folks who have found their way into the Trump administration.

The reason for complications in the tax codes is that they reduce taxes. That's why they are there, and that's why they don't go away. What happens in our politics is that many lobbyists are paid many billions of dollars to lower taxes, hardly any lobbyists are hired to reform taxes.

--Hiram

Anonymous said...

Trump's not a guy into complexity or nuance. What he is proposing is basically pretty simple. He wants Americans to borrow money in order to pay for tax cuts for himself, his family, and some but not all of his wealthy friends.

--Hiram