I don’t know if anyone has sat down and gone through the various tax proposals being floated, but I found some really interesting videos that first discuss Sanders verse Clinton (here) and then Trump verse Cruz (here). Of course, just because any of these guys (or gals in Clinton’s case) is elected doesn’t mean they would actually get their tax plans through…I’d say that, even in the most likely case that Clinton gets elected she probably wouldn’t be able to get any of this actually through.
So, the summary of the above videos for those of you who don’t really feel like slogging through them is that Cruz and Trump’s plans are pretty much unworkable unless we slash the federal government by either a quarter or half (Trump, unsurprisingly is the worst of the lot). On the Hillary verse Sanders side, Hillary’s plan, again unsurprisingly, makes the least change of any of the 4 candidates proposals, while Sanders makes the most (wrt increases in taxes…Trump’s is the simplest, but since it cuts federal revenue roughly in half it probably has the most profound effect). Of them all, I’m obviously most in favor of Hillary’s since, well, she is my candidate. But was wondering what other 'dopers think (either after viewing the videos or just what they know of the plans). I’d also like some thoughts on how realistic you 'dopers think wrt your favorite candidate and the chances of them actually getting any of this through the system an in place. Myself, as I said, I’d rate Hillary as the best chance…and that pretty low, which means, IMHO, it’s going to be business as usual wrt taxes.
So according to the Tax Foundation, Jared Bernstein at the Washington Post, etc., Trump’s tax plan will create between a $9.5 - 10 billion deficit over a decade. Not arguing pros or cons of that but here was my dilemma:
Trump says, at the very least, Social Security and Medicare will not experience cuts, neither will defense spending. The only thing I’ve been able to find is that foreign aid will be cut. How much? I don’t know but let’s assume, for argument’s sake, that Trump hypothetically cuts all foreign aid. Last I checked, that amounted for $43 billion in 2014.
So…where is the rest coming from? Did I miss something?
I think he plans to be able to do away with agencies like the IRS. Yeah, that’s not going to save that much either. But I think he (or whoever he has advising him on this) has some vague notion that we will do away with a ton of government ‘waste’, and that coupled with the huge (projected…by them) boost to our economy and getting rid of all those nasty social programs (or something), we’ll be rolling in the dough. Or something.
AFAICT, you didn’t miss anything, no. This is basically grist for the populist crowd both him and Cruz are playing too (just as Sanders plan, IMHO, is the same thing). I honestly don’t think any of these guys/gals actually thinks they will get it pushed through anyway, so might as well provide fodder for the faithful to get worked up over.