Wolf Blitzer tried to poke holes in Donald Trump, Ted Cruz, and Marco Rubio’s tax plans that give massive tax cuts to millionaires and billionaires, but the candidates weren’t interesting in talking about the real world implications like exploding the deficit.
In reality, each of the remaining GOP candidates are touting tax plans that put their big donors over working American families. Their proposals give millionaires and billionaires massively disproportionate after-tax income boosts, while middle class Americans get left behind — add trillions are added to the deficit.
We get that the Koch brothers are nervous because they can’t buy-off Donald Trump and influence his policy positions, but they can rest assured that even his tax plan would work out pretty well for them.
- Donald Trump, running as a demagogic, fear-mongering “man of the people” is pushing a tax plan that is, well, “great for Donald Trump.” Here’s the rundown on Trump’s plan, which would reduce the tax rate for top income-earners to its “lowest level since 1931” — and it would “lead to a $10 trillion revenue loss,” seriously adding to the deficit despite his claims to the contrary.
- Ted Cruz‘s extremely regressive “flat tax” proposal would “[M]ainly benefit high-income households,” increasing top income-earners’ after-tax income by “as much as 34.2%.” That’s good for billionaire donors like the Koch brothers, but it’s bad for working families. On top of all that, Cruz’s plan could cost a massive $8.6 trillion over ten years.
- Marco Rubio‘s tax plan would eliminate capital gains taxes entirely, a massive giveaway to his wealthy hedge fund donors. Rubio’s proposal would give the top one-thousandth of taxpayers “an average tax cut of more than $900,000 per year,” andcost $6.8 trillion over ten years. Rubio’s plan so disproportionately benefits the wealthy that Mitt Romney wouldn’t owe a dime in taxes under it.
- John Kasich claims that his tax proposal would allow him to balance the budget within 8 years. The catch: he conveniently glossed over the details, but he’d probably have to threaten seniors and future retirees Social Security benefits to do it. And we all know how his callous attitude with respect to cutting earned benefits: “[Y]ou’re going to have to get over it.”
- Ben Carson’s tithing flat tax proposal would leave the government with a $1.1 trillion hole.
Published: Feb 25, 2016