海角大神

Opinion: Trump鈥檚 new economic plan is a 'yuge' bamboozle

Donald Trump poses as a working-class populist, but about his new economic plan would be a gusher for the wealthy. And almost nothing will trickle down to anyone else.

Donald Trump poses as a working-class populist, but about his new economic plan would be a gusher for the wealthy. And almost nothing will trickle down to anyone else.

He鈥檇 knock down the top tax rate on businesses from 35 percent to 15 percent, thereby richly rewarding the investor class.

He鈥檇 cut taxes the top tax rate on the wealthy from 39.6 percent to 33 percent, another boon to the top. 聽

He鈥檇 eliminate the estate tax 鈥� now paid by a relative handful of families whose net worth exceeds $5.5 million.

Not incidentally, this is an especial windfall for the Trump family. If Trump is worth as much as he says, his heirs would get a tax break of $4 billion to $7 billion.

He鈥檇 let global corporations pay just a 10 percent tax rate on untaxed offshore profits 鈥� another mammoth gift to big shareholders.

Consider: Apple, Pfizer, Microsoft and other global American corporations hold $2.4 trillion in earnings abroad. They owe some $700 billion in taxes on these earnings. Trump鈥檚 10 percent tax rate would raise only about $150 billion. It wouldn鈥檛 even generate new investment in America. A tax amnesty was tried in 2004 and it was a dud.

Yes, he鈥檇 also lower taxes on lower-income Americans. But the biggest beneficiaries by far are the wealthy.聽

Trump says his tax cuts would cost $4.4 trillion over 10 years. He claims most of it would be paid for by economic growth.

We鈥檝e been here before.

Both Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush tried supply-side 鈥渢rickle-down鈥� economics. We should have learned two lessons.

First, nothing trickles down. The giant tax cuts on the wealthy enacted by Reagan in the 1980s and Bush in the 2000s enriched those at the top 鈥� but the wages of the bottom 60 percent went nowhere.聽

Second, such tax cuts produce giant budget deficits. Under Reagan and George H.W. Bush, the federal budget deficit exploded. It took Bill Clinton鈥檚 administration (of which I was proud to have been a member) to get the budget back in some semblance of balance.

Then, under George W. Bush, what happened? The deficit exploded again. 聽

Trump would do all this on a far grander scale. He鈥檚 also proposing a vast expansion of the military, including 90,000 new soldiers for the Army and nearly 75 new ships for the Navy. The tab: an estimated聽聽a year in additional spending.

This would mean big bucks for military contractors. But it鈥檚 hard to see how economic benefits trickle down to anyone else.

Perhaps Trump is banking on an indirect fiscal stimulus 鈥� the kind of 鈥渕ilitary Keynesianism鈥� Ronald Reagan employed to fuel growth in the 1980s. But as we learned then, this sort of growth doesn鈥檛 trickle down, either.

Trump also pledges a gigantic聽聽to 鈥渂uild the next generation of roads, bridges, railways, tunnels, sea ports, and airports.鈥�

Hillary Clinton has proposed spending聽聽on infrastructure over five years.

The Donald is thinking much bigger. 鈥淗er number is a fraction of what we鈥檙e talking about,鈥澛�. 鈥淲e need much more money to rebuild our infrastructure. I would say at least double her numbers, and you鈥檙e going to really need a lot more than that.鈥�

Okay, so let鈥檚 call this $500 billion over five years.

Trump doesn鈥檛 stop there. A 鈥溾�� of his economic plan, he says, is to renegotiate Nafta, bring trade cases against China, and 鈥渞eplace the present policy of globalism 鈥� which has moved so many jobs and so much wealth out of our country 鈥搘ith a聽.鈥�

Who would benefit from a retreat from globalism? Maybe giant American corporations that don鈥檛 export from the U.S. because they already make things abroad for sale in foreign markets. But not average Americans, who鈥檇 have to pay more for just about everything.

Choking off trade won鈥檛 result in more good jobs in America. Trump says his trade policy will bring back manufacturing to the United States. But today鈥檚 factories are automated. Even in China, numerical-controlled machine tools and robots are replacing humans.

Oh, and Trump also wants to scrap many environmental, health, and safety regulations. He says this will further stimulate growth.

It鈥檚 another form of trickle-down nonsense. Even if we could get more growth by scrapping such regulations, growth isn鈥檛 an end in itself. The goal is a higher standard of living for most Americans.

If our air and water are unhealthy, if we鈥檙e subject to more floods and draughts (especially lower-income Americans who can鈥檛 afford to protect themselves and their homes from the devastation), if our workplaces and our food are unsafe, what鈥檚 the consequence? Our standard of living drops.

Trickle-down economics has proven itself a cruel hoax. It鈥檚 cruel because it rewards people at the top who least need it and hurts those below who are in greatest need. It鈥檚 a hoax because nothing trickles down.

Trump鈥檚 鈥測uge鈥� trickle-down economics would be an even bigger bamboozle.

This story originally appeared on .