Making the rounds of TV news and talk programs on May 8 and 9, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump (shown) explained his tax plan, especially what effect, if any, it would have on wealthy Americans.
Advertisement
He confessed that he didn’t know how people could live on the current federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour, but he didn’t have a hard number on what the minimum wage should be.
Trump added, “I don’t mind paying more tax – I’ll be honest with you”. But he hopes it’s the states, not the federal government that will make the change.
Trump’s inconsistency on taxes came to a head last week, when he responded to criticisms that his plan would lavish huge tax cuts on wealthy Americans by saying ambiguously that he is “not such a huge fan of that”.
Lots of people – OK, lots of Washington people – took this to mean he’d go along with taxes on the top 1 percent that are higher than they are now.
Mr Trump’s proposal, released in September, included broad tax breaks for businesses and households, with the highest income tax rate reduced to 25 per cent from the current 39.6 per cent rate.
But when Trump says he’d like to see people make more, but that it should be left to the states, that’s about as federalist and Tenth Amendment as you’re going to get.
He then told Fox News: “We were talking about the minimum wage, and they said ‘Should we increase the minimum wage?’ And I’m saying that if we’re going to compete with other countries we can’t do that because the wages would be too high”. And I want lower in the middle class. The middle class in this country is getting decimated.
SEIB: Well, look, I think one thing you’ve sort of got to get past, this idea that maybe Donald Trump is going to dump Paul Ryan as chairman of the convention.
“But they’re going down in your plan”, Stephanopoulos said.
Trump won support from influential antitax crusader Grover Norquist, who has backed Trump’s tax plan.
Mr. Trump has been consistent in his populist position that the Federal Reserve should be audited, a position shared with Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders. “Trump’s economic plans take direct aim at working Americans – his proposal to cut trillions in taxes for the top one percent would nearly certainly come at the expense of working- and middle-class families”. “But I would say: let the states decide”.
“Sure. If the auditors finish”. Let me stop you there.
Sarah Palin, the former Alaska governor, said in an interview on CNN’s “State of the Union” that Ryan would be “Cantored”, a reference to former Representative Eric Cantor of Virginia, who was in line to be speaker of the House before losing reelection in a Republican primary in 2014.
Businessmen hate taxes. Taxes eat into profits and filing tax returns is an expensive and time consuming process.
Ryan said last week that conservatives wanted to know if Trump shared their values. If that’s that case, he’s talking about his negotiation priorities as president, right?
After effectively sealing the Republican nomination last week, Mr Trump has used speeches and interviews to offer more details on his policy positions.
In keeping so many of his positions vague, Trump leaves himself open to attack. Fisher said he would like Sanders to run as a third-party candidate, but the Vermont senator has said he wouldn’t do that.
Advertisement
Trump and Clinton have both struggled to maintain a consistent view on the minimum wage.
