Editorial Board: Trump would explode the deficit: Our view

[riversedge]

Trump would explode the deficit: Our view


http://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2017/02/28/president-trump-congress-federal-budget-editorials-debates/98563356/


The Editorial Board , USA TODAY Published 11:23 p.m. ET Feb. 28, 2017 | Updated 18 hours ago
Proposals sounded terrific, except for one thing: The numbers don’t add up.
ourview022817

(Photo: Pool photo by Jim Lo Scalzo)
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The president’s policy priorities, touted Tuesday night in his wide-ranging first address to a joint session Congress, were quintessential Donald Trump, though with a softer tone: based on deception and impractical on many levels.

“Our military will be given the resources its brave warriors so richly deserve,” he said. “Crumbling infrastructure will be replaced with new roads, bridges, tunnels, airports and railways gleaming across our beautiful land.”

More money will be spent on a “great, great” border wall, drug treatment and child care. Corporations will receive a “big, big” tax cut, and there will be “massive tax relief” for the middle class...........................




Even before his speech, Trump’s plan to hike military spending by 10%, or $54 billion, next year — coupled with large offsetting cuts in diplomatic, environmental and other non-defense programs — was facing stern opposition on Capitol Hill. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., called it “dead on arrival.”

You simply can’t boost spending on the military that much, start a $1 trillion infrastructure program, hold Social Security and Medicare harmless, and slash taxes without exploding the deficit, which already exceeds $500 billion a year.........................

[ffr]

1. GOP policies always explode the deficit. GOP represents lower taxes

You can think about it any way you want, but lower taxes mean higher deferred taxes, which is another name for deficits. eom.

[scscholar]

2. He wants to simplify the tax code which is just morally wrong

He wants to slash the number of brackets for individuals from seven to three. We need more complicated tax rules to keep, for example, all of those HR Block employees working.

[Stonepounder]

3. Then there are the 'hidden taxes'.

In terms of infrastructure 'rebuilding' he wants to have public/private 'partnerships'. So, the government will put up some of the money and private contractors would put up the rest. We, I can tell you, sure as death and taxes, those contractors aren't going to build those roads and bridges and airports and the like our of their sense of civic duty! We will end up with toll roads and toll bridges and the like.

There are lots of folk who live here in Northern KY who work 'across the river' in Cincinnati and there is no possible way to get from here to there without crossing the Ohio river. Now, what happens when the bridges go to $5.00 each way? That's $10/day or $50/week. Even with a 'commuter pass' that gives you a 50% discount, that still works out to about $1,250/year for something that used to be paid for by your taxes. So, it is actually a 'hidden tax' and a hideously regressive tax at that, since it costs the same for a $500 junker car as a $120,000 Maseratti.

And then he wants to impose a 20% 'import tax' (read duty) on everything coming in from Mexico. He seems to think that somehow Mexico will pay the duty. Uh...no. The importer will have to pay the duty and will then pass the cost directly to the consumer. Watch the price of produce skyrocket. Another 'hidden tax'. Neither the 'road tax' or the 'produce tax' will add a single dollar to the Government income.

What a dummkopf!