Political Scope with Matt Nalefski: Trump Tax Plan Is A Bunch of Hot Air

Political Scope with Matt Nalefski: Trump Tax Plan Is A Bunch of Hot Air

On Monday, September 28, Republican presidential candidate and real-estate mogul Donald Trump introduced his tax plan.

The plan, entitled “Tax Reform That Will Make America Great Again,” hopes to accomplish four “simple” goals: 1) Tax relief for middle class Americans by increasing the amount Americans keep in after-tax wages; 2) Simplify the Tax Code to reduce the nuisance Americans face when filing their taxes; 3) Grow the American Economy by making America globally competitive by dissuading corporations from inversion; 4) Doesn’t add to our debt and deficit, “which are already too large.”

Trump’s plan achieves the first goal by greatly reducing tax rates, thus eliminating the need for deductions and loopholes. The Trump plan also removes the income tax for 73 million households. And for the 42 million households “that currently file complex forms to determine they don’t owe any income taxes,” they’ll just file a one page form to save “time, stress, uncertainty and an average of $110 in preparation costs.”

As for the second goal, the Trump plan will create a simpler tax code with only four brackets, rather than the current code’s seven. These four brackets—0%, 10%, 20%, and 25%–would have the lowest tax rates since before World War II.

The third goal is met with a flat rate on business. “No business of any size, from a Fortune 500 to a mom and pop shop to a freelancer living job to job, will pay more than 15% of their business in income taxes.” Trump believes that this lower rate—which would be the best in the world—will make company outsourcing redundant.

Trump plans to achieve the fourth goal in an almost entirely unrelated way. “No family will have to pay the death tax. You earned and saved that money for your family, not the government. You paid taxes on it when you earned it.” I’m sure this could somehow be related to the goal of “Doesn’t add to our debt and deficit,” but I’m drawing a blank.

The Trump plan is one of the most unprofessionally written documents I’ve ever read. Even the section entitled “Details of Donald J. Trump’s Tax Plan” isn’t very detailed. It’s essentially a ramble, just like his speeches. Actually, it’s written exactly the way he speaks, which is frustrating.

Throughout his entire campaign, I have noticed Trump never goes into detail about anything. His reasoning is always that he’s rich and because of this fact, he has the intelligence and competence to fix America’s woes and become the most powerful man in the free world. When he released his tax plan, I was at least hopeful that he might go into detail as to how he plans to fix America’s economy. Surprisingly, he did. However, I don’t think his plan will achieve these goals.

Not only do we need to put a pin in the huge ego that is Donald Trump, but also blow up the hot air that he calls a tax plan. The conservative Tax Foundation has scored Trump’s proposal and estimates that it would cost the US government $10.14 trillion—at a minimum—over the next ten years. On the other hand, the liberal Citizens for Tax Justice score Trump’s plan at $900 billion a year—placing it around $9 trillion over the next ten years. Either way, the plan will add to the federal government’s deficit…which is point four of Trump’s plan.

Donald J. Trump—the recent inclusion of his middle initial somehow makes him even less palpable—honestly believes he’s the man who can save America and his new tax plan shows it. He thinks that, under his leadership, the US will have a massive upswing in economic growth. He essentially believes he’s the messiah who will make America right again—or “Great Again”—by his so called business acumen. From the minute I ever heard that man speak I knew he was a loud, obnoxious, arrogant cretin and, not once, has my opinion changed. As things are going now, unless he comes up with a reasonable and sensible policy plan, I’m certain he’s not right for me, or the American people.