TRUMP SPEAKS ON ECONOMIC PLAN: CUT TAXES, HALT TRADE DEALS, BRING BACK COAL PLANTS AND END OBAMACARE

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Clinton slams plan as “lower wages, fewer jobs, more debt, tax breaks for the 0.1.%.”

By Miriam Raftery

August 8,2016 (Detroit) –  Donald Trump laid out his economic agenda, promising to “jump start” the American economy in a speech in Detroit today.  The plan calls for tax cuts, dismantling trade pacts, slashing regulations on businesses, eliminating Obamacare and boosting production and burning of coal, a greenhouse gas blamed by scientists for climate change.

His rival, Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, slammed Trump’s plan in a tweet stating: “Donald Trump's economic plan: 1. Lower wages 2. Fewer jobs 3. More debt 4. Tax breaks for the 0.1%”

While that’s over-simplistic (his plan does include eliminating income taxes for those earning under $25,000 or couples under $50,000, and proposes a childcare tax credit) many of his proposals do favor the rich and large businesses.

The wealthy real estate magnate pledged to eliminate estate taxes, lower the business tax rate to 15 percent, letting businesses take deductions immediately, and cut income tax brackets down to just three, with the wealthiest Americans paying no more than 33%.

Faulting Democratic policies for trade pacts that have shipped jobs overseas, such as auto worker jobs, Trump reiterated his opposition to the Trans Pacific Trade Partnership, which Clinton and the Democratic Party Platform now also oppose, though President Obama has pressed for the TPP.

He slammed Clinton for her past support of free trade deals, stating, ”I expect Detroit will get that apology right around the same time Hillary Clinton turns over those 33,000emails she deleted.”

Trump said he would eliminate Obamacare (the Affordable Healthcare Act) but has laid out no plans to make healthcare affordable or accessible, nor to prevent going back to the pre-Obamacare problems such as insurance companies being able to deny insurance coverage for people with pre-existing conditions. 

He repeatedly touted his plan as what’s needed to “make America great again.” He added that he wants to “build the next generation of roads, bridges” and other infrastructure and “send new skyscrapers soaring…It will be American workers who are hired to do the job. Americanism, not globalism, will be our new credo,” said Trump, who ironically has relied largely on foreign workers and products made overseas for his own business empire.

Previously some economists however have said that Trump’s emphasis on more tax cuts would add to the deficit. He has also not spelled out how he would fund critical needs such as the infrastructure funding he calls for, Social Security or emergency health funding such as Zika virus while drastically slashing the nation’s revenues.

Trump also called for creating more jobs for coal workers by boosting production of coal and cutting restrictions on pollution from coal-fired plants, prompting the Daily Edge to tweet this critical barb: “Trump will end the clean energy boom and take away your healthcare, replacing it with a $7/hr. job in a coal mine with no safety equipment.”

 


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