Trump's Tax Plan is Good For - Well, Donald Trump

After weeks of worrying traditional anti-tax Republicans with talk of a crackdown on the rich, experts across the political spectrum say Trump’s plan looks like a windfall for the wealthiest of the wealthy and for big corporations. 

Benjy Sarlin

MSNBC

September 28, 2015

Trump’s tax proposal: Buyer beware!

Donald Trump’s position on winning is clear: He’s for it. So it’s perhaps not surprising that Trump himself looks like the biggest winner in his tax plan, which includes a number of changes that would slash taxes for himself, his company, and the children who stand to inherit his fortune.

“I fight like hell to pay as little as possible,” Trump said at his press conference announcing the plan on Monday. “Can I say that? I’m not a politician. I fight like hell always because it’s an expense.”

After weeks of worrying traditional anti-tax Republicans with talk of a crackdown on the rich, experts across the political spectrum say Trump’s plan looks like a windfall for the wealthiest of the wealthy and for big corporations. The top tax rate for individuals would be reduced to 25% from 39.6%, the top corporate tax rate would be cut by more than half to 15% from 35%, and the estate tax – which only applies to inheritances over $5.4 million – would be eliminated entirely. In addition, Trump would eliminate a 3.8% surcharge on capital gains taxes for wealthy investors created to finance the Affordable Care Act, which provides subsidies to lower and middle income Americans to buy insurance. All of these changes would likely benefit people like Trump and businesses like his own in a major way.

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Trump's Tax Cut for the Rich

For Immediate Release: Monday, September 28, 2015
Contact: Jenice R. Robinson, 202.299.1066 x29 or Jenice@ctj.org

(Washington, D.C.) Donald Trump released a tax plan today that is missing some details. But a preliminary analysis of the plan by Citizens for Tax Justice finds that it would cost nearly $11 trillion in its first decade. The plan would reduce taxes on all income groups, but by far the biggest beneficiaries would be the very wealthy.

Following is a statement about the plan by Robert McIntyre, director of Citizens for Tax Justice:

“Yet another presidential candidate is making a mockery of populism by trumpeting a massive tax break for the rich as a plan that will benefit average Americans. The top 1 percent of Americans will receive an average tax break of $184,000 per year while the bottom 20 percent will receive an average tax cut of only $250.

“Trump claims the plan will be revenue neutral, but he has made bombastic exaggerations before and this time is no different. In fact, there is no possibility that this plan would not be a gigantic tax cut for the rich and a gigantic revenue loser for the government.

Paul Krugman: Why the Republicans in DC Are About to Get Much More Dangerous @alternet

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San Francisco 2.0

Fascinating documentary.
San Francisco 2.0.  Playing on HBO.
Producer. Alexandra Pelosi
Also features Robert Reich.

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Reich: Big Tech is Too Big

Berkeley, Calif. — CONSERVATIVES and liberals interminably debate the merits of “the free market” versus “the government.” Which one you trust more delineates the main ideological divide in America.

In reality, they aren’t two separate things. There can’t be a market without government. Legislators, agency heads and judges decide the rules of the game. And, over time, they change the rules. The important question, too rarely discussed, is who has the most influence over these decisions and in that way wins the game.

Two centuries ago slaves were among the nation’s most valuable assets, and after the Civil War, perhaps land was. Then factories, machines, railroads and oil transformed America. By the 1920s most working Americans were employees, and the most contested property issue was their freedom to organize into unions.

Now information and ideas are the most valuable forms of property. Most of the cost of producing it goes into discovering it or making the first copy. After that, the additional production cost is often zero. Such “intellectual property” is the key building block of the new economy. Without government decisions over what it is, and who can own it and on what terms, the new economy could not exist.Continue reading the main story