Why Donald Trump’s flip-flop on taxes is so astonishing…
Presumed Republican nominee Donald Trump declared that taxes would increase “for the rich more than anybody else” during a possible Trump presidency.
Trump had previously released a detailed tax plan that the non-partisan Tax Policy Center determined “would give the top 0.1% of income earners like himself an average tax cut of more than $1.3 million (versus $2,700 for those in the middle class),” according to a report by NBC News.
However, Trump flip-flopped on his plan during an interview with NBC‘s “Meet the Press” on Sunday, stating that his tax plan was merely a starting point in negotiations.
“I’m not under the illusion that that’s going to pass. They’re going to come to me. They’re going to want to raise it for the rich. Frankly, they’re going to want to raise it for the rich more than anybody else,” he said, adding: “But the middle class has to be protected. The rich is probably going to end up paying more. And business might have to pay a little bit more. But we’re giving a massive business tax cut.”
As NBC News reports, this shift is much more than simply a policy reversal, “it runs counter to today’s entire Republican Party and conservative movement.” [emphasis added]
NBC goes on to make an apt analogy for a Democratic candidate, likening his strategy to that of a “Democratic presidential nominee calling for repealing Obamacare,” or stating: “You know what — I think George W. Bush’s Iraq war was the right call after all.“[emphasis added]
Noting that Trump’s flip-flop on taxes is “the equivalent of your 2016 presumptive GOP presidential nominee calling for higher taxes on the rich,” NBC News goes on to note that in “our lifetime of covering politics, the position of almost every elected Republican politician has been that lower tax rates, including for the well-off, is the key to economic prosperity, and that any tax hike on the rich is to be opposed at all costs. (Remember that fiscal-cliff debate after the 2012 election?) And so you can see how Trump’s position on taxes could make it hard for restoring unity with key Republicans, especially with House Speaker Paul Ryan, who is an ardent tax-cutter.”
And to that end, on Monday CNN confirmed with Paul Ryan’s office that the Speaker “would back out of chairing the Republican National Convention in July, if Donald Trump asks him” to step down.
NBC News completed their analysis of Trump’s tax flip-flop by asking:
In fact, would anyone be surprised if President Obama came out and announced today: “Now that the presumptive Republican nominee is calling for raising taxes on the wealthy, Republican leaders in Congress can now work with me on eliminating a new round of tax loopholes benefiting the Top 1%…”?
You must be logged in to post a comment Login