You can disregard all of those economic goodies Donald Trump promised previously. He finally told the truth on Monday in a speech to the Detroit Economic Club. And it turns out he doesn’t have a magic wand, after all. What he has is the same old recipe for disaster Republicans have been touting for generations.
And it’s pretty much the same plan as every other Republican candidate promised during the primary debates.
If he gets to be President – God forbid – he will slash taxes for the rich and global corporations, hoping a few crumbs would trickle down for the middle class. As for the poor, the sick and the aged, they would be even more neglected, more abandoned.
Trump’s new plan is chillingly reminiscent of Paul Ryan’s infamous soak-the-poor proposals rejected by voters four years ago. It’s depressingly similar to the mess Sam Brownback has made in Kansas. In short, it is the same supply-side nonsense that has failed and failed and failed…
But that’s what Trump is stuck with – like it or not.
Assuming he has a Republican Congress to work with, that’s the kind of legislation he would get on his desk. All of his earlier promises are just hot air. The American President does not dictate policy. He signs the laws that Congress passes.
Of course as President, Trump could propose policy initiatives, and members of his party would be expected to follow his lead. But there is no evidence of that happening.
Party leaders are not going to discard their traditional Republican dogma to follow Trump’s heresies.
House Speaker Paul Ryan, for example, is on a different path entirely from Trump. And Trump’s Monday speech reflects Ryan’s vision.
The Ryan vision denies reality. Channeling Ryan, Trump declared, for example, that:
Our lower business tax will also end job killing corporate inversions and cause trillions in new dollars to come pouring into our country.
Really? Recent news stories indicate that global corporations are using write-offs to dodge their taxes now. Why would corporations that pay no federal taxes respond so favorably to another rate cut?
What would they gain by moving the money they have sashed abroad back to the US?
If you want to know the likely result of slashing corporate taxes, look at what happened in Kansas. There are no jobs to show for it, and the state is bankrupt.
Trump’s speech – fact and fiction
