September 29, 2015
Donald Trump's big tax plan is exactly what you would expect from someone who wants to build an impregnable 2,000-mile wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, politely round up and deport millions of illegal immigrants, and intimidate Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping through sheer force of will.
It is a fantasy. Maybe even a joke — though one played on frustrated middle-class voters who thought Trump the populist would soak the undeserved rich, especially Wall Street. (Silicon Valley billionaires, don't worry, it's cool.)
And yet, despite the Trump tax plan's dissonance with reality, and its failure to live up to Trump's populist rhetoric, it clearly proves that this big-talking businessman is serious about trying to win not only the GOP's nativist wing, but its tax-cutting factions, too. Donald Trump thinks he can win the presidency, and he thinks this tax plan will help.
As for the (ludicrous) plan itself: It's as though Trump read a copy of the Jeb Bush plan, thought about it for a moment, and then tossed it at an underling, yelling, "We should do this, but make it more tremendous, more marvelous!" That's pretty much what Trump is offering. Bush would cut the top income tax rate for rich people to 28 percent, Trump to 25 percent. Bush would lower the corporate tax rate to 20 percent, Trump to 15 percent. Bush would take 15 million Americans off the income tax rolls, Trump would take off 75 million — all of whom, according to Trump, would get "a new one page form to send the IRS saying, 'I win.'" Oh, and while the Bush plan would lose $3 trillion over a decade — not counting economic feedback — Trump's might lose multiples of that. No amount of "dynamic scoring" is likely to make Trump's numbers even approach balance.
Read the full article at The Week: Donald Trump's tax plan proves he's serious about winning the White House