Trump and Taxes

You know something is strange is happening when you are the front running GOP presidential nominee and leading liberal voices start agreeing with your tax plans. 

Last month, Donald Trump came forward and shared some economic principles that could only be seen as an insight into the policies he would champion should he become president.  In an interview on Bloomberg's "With All Due Respect," Trump was more than open to the idea of raising the marginal tax rate on the top tier of American earners. 

 “I would let people making hundreds of millions of dollars-a-year pay some tax, because right now they are paying very little tax and I think it's outrageous," said Trump.

Trump doesn't go into specifics on why it is the case that top income earners pay less taxes, though he hints at it when you mentions his focus would be in "simplifying the tax code." It certainly isn't the top marginal rate, which is currently 39.6%. The fact is that the current U.S. tax code, all 70,000 pages of it, is so confusing and convoluted and contains so many built-in lobbied for loopholes, that anyone who can afford top notch tax lawyers and CPA's can avoid most, if not all, taxes. This would apparently include Donald Trump. 

I've long been a proponent of simplifying the tax code, eliminating most, or all, tax loopholes and establishing a flat tax with exemptions. This, combined with a balanced budget would greatly reduce the national debt and spark economic growth. The idea that low taxes spark economic growth have long been a talking point of the American Right (though in practice, it is almost exclusively lip service).

Which is why it's so troubling seeing the likes of Paul Krugman and Elizabeth Warren backing Trump on taxes.  If Trump does indeed profess Keyensian economics, like Krugman suggests, it isn't just outside the norm, it is downright frightening.

--Ray--