Trump’s September economic policy speech reflected the Republican’s supply-side economics which goes back to Reagan’s first run for the Presidency. It resulted in massive debt increases then, and it would again.
Here’s what G. H. W. Bush saw back in 1980: “A big difference that the governor [Reagan] and I have regards his tax cut. He feels that
- you can cut taxes by $70 billion the first year and still
- balance the budget and
- increase defense spending.”
Trump’s September-2016 economic plan would:
- Cut taxes at least $440 billion per year
- balance the budget and
- increase defense spending.
Increase Defense Spending
“I’m going to make our military so big, so powerful, so strong, that nobody — absolutely nobody — is gonna mess with us,” Trump says in a video posted on his campaign website.
In his Sept 7 speech (re-stated as percent increases), Trump said “I will submit a new budget to rebuild our military. Increase the army by 10%, Marines by 56%, number of ships by 27%, fighter aircraft 8%, and “develop a state of the art missile defense system.” That last item, which he claims will defend against ballistic missiles from N. Korea and Iran is Star Wars II.
Reagan’s signature military boondoggle was his “Star Wars” program to “develop a sophisticated anti-ballistic missile system.” It was the too-expensive-to-complete.
Tax Cuts for the Rich
According to the conservative Tax Foundation, everyone would get at a 0.8% increase in income but the top 1 percent would get at least 10.2% increase. And when you apply 0.8% to $40,000 and 10.2% to $40,000,000 you find the poor family gets a $320 increase and the rich family a $4,080,000 increase (Trump would get even more). That’s very much like Reagan’s tax cuts, and it’s in keeping with Voodoo economic “theory.”
Sending Cuts
Like Reagan, Trump promises vast savings by cutting waste. But all presidents try to do this, and they can never find that must waste to cut. So you can believe this if you want, but remember everyone who’s believed it in the past has been fooled.
We’ve got to get rid of the $19 trillion in debt.”
Bob Woodward: “How long would that take?”
Trump: “I think I could do it fairly quickly, because of the fact the numbers…”
Woodward: “What’s fairly quickly?”
Trump: “Well, I would say over a period of eight years. And I’ll tell you why.”
Woodward: “Would you ever be open to tax increases as part of that, to solve the problem?”
Trump: “I don’t think I’ll need to. The power is trade. Our deals are so bad.”
Woodward: “That would be $2 trillion a year.”
Trump: “No, but I’m renegotiating all of our deals, Bob. The big trade deals that we’re doing so badly on. With China, $505 billion this year in trade. We’re losing with everybody.”
— exchange during a Washington Post interview, March 31, 2016
