“Now how much would you pay for this amazing budget?”
But the biggest part of the budget swindle happens on the other side of the ledger. Trump is throwing around huge numbers and promising to eliminate a list of relatively tiny programs, all in the hopes that you won’t notice or care that he’s trying to give an enormous tax cut to the richest people in America. According to the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center, the Trump campaign’s tax plan would reduce federal tax revenue — and thereby increase federal debt — by at least $6.1 trillion. Roughly half of that money would go directly into the bank accounts of the richest 1 percent.
Of course, Trump will argue — as good snake-oil salesmen do — that picking your pockets is good for you. You can be sure he will try to sell you on the idea that enormous tax cuts for the wealthy will boost the economy for everyone. Never mind that we’ve tried that before, both at the national level with President George W. Bush’s tax cuts and at the state level — for instance, in Kansas — to no measurable effect. Never mind that the last thing a giant, multinational corporation making billions in profits and already paying little in taxes needs is another tax cut. And definitely ignore the fact that the primary beneficiaries of such a tax cut will be people like Trump and his family (though we can’t be sure how much he will profit, because Trump has still not released his tax returns).
To be fair to Trump, this is the same scam that Republicans in Congress have been running for six years. Their budgets always contained the same basic tricks and sleights of hand, and they did seem to get away with it. It’s no wonder that Trump’s White House is trying the same thing. But, hopefully, Trump will find that the American people aren’t so willing to tolerate the same kind of budgetary double-cross coming from the president of the United States.
We’re gonna have to start a Line 63 Movement. With Republican designs on corporate tax breaks, upper income relief and the elimination of estates taxes for the wealthy, there is now way they fund true net tax relief to the middle and lower brackets. The pea falls off the table at the last line of your tax return before the computation of the refund or amount owed. Write that number down this year. Ryan and his ilk will make all manner of adjustments and point to marginal brackets to cover the fraud, but your net tax on the next round of tax returns will go up or I’ll eat one of Trump’s hat.