Donald
Trump's VP pick signals a commitment to slashing taxes for millionaires and
cutting services for everyone else.
By
It was easy to get caught up in the circus that was the
Republican National Convention. Rousing speeches (plagiarized and original) and
raucous floor votes make for great television and funny internet memes.
Unfortunately, as we’ve come to expect from events organized by
Donald Trump, the convention was decidedly light on substance. For an inkling
of what a Trump administration might actually do, we have to look elsewhere.
Let’s start with Mike Pence, the newcomer to the ticket and a
relative unknown to most voters.
The self-described Tea Partier served six terms in the House of
Representatives and one term as governor of Indiana. He’s best known for his
staunchly conservative stances on social issues, notably on reproductive health
and LGBT rights.
But Pence also stands way outside the mainstream on economic
issues, with a clear track record of coddling the wealthy. He’s an ardent
supporter of trickle-down economics, the debunked idea that giving more money
to the wealthy will somehow help the rest of us.
As a congressman in 2010, for instance, Pence made the bizarre claim that raising income taxes would
decrease federal revenue. Unsurprisingly, Politifact — the Pulitzer
Prize-winning fact-checking group — rated that false.
More recently, Pence put his ideas into action in Indiana,
enacting a major tax cut that helped give his state one of the most regressive tax structures in the country.
Indeed, on taxes, Pence is largely in line with Trump, who’s shown significant support for massive tax cuts for wealthy people like himself.
During the primary, Trump released a tax plan that would cost a
whopping $24 trillion over the next two decades, the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center calculates —
most of it in cuts for high earners. Now in the general election, reports indicate he may be promoting a more
modest package of cuts, but an unmistakably regressive one nonetheless.
Under the soaring subtitle “Restoring the American Dream,” page
one of this year’s Republican Party platform dives straight into ideas around
tax reform. The tax code, it claims, “has the greatest impact on our
economy’s performance.”
“Getting our tax system right,” it goes on, “will be the most
important factor in driving the entire economy back to prosperity.” What Trump
and Pence consider “getting it right” is massive tax cuts for the ultra
wealthy.
How do the American people feel about this?
I’m sure many see cutting their tax bill as a great thing — the
adult equivalent of an elementary school class president promising to end
homework or double the length of recess. But most see past this.
Cutting taxes means major cuts to programs that millions of
families depend on. It means slashing budgets or perhaps completely eliminating
child nutrition programs, senior prescription health plans, and early childhood
education programs. And the list goes on.
Perhaps that’s why for the third year in a row, an annual Gallup poll shows
most Americans agree with the statement, “Our government should redistribute
wealth by heavy taxes on the rich.”
Further, a recent poll from Pew Research showed 78 percent are either “very
bothered” or “somewhat bothered” by the “feeling that some wealthy people don’t
pay their fair share.”
Trump’s candidacy has been anything but predictable, and there’s
a long way to go before Election Day in November. But with Pence on the ticket
and the GOP platform in place, it’s clear tax cuts for the wealthy are part of
the plan.
Josh
Hoxie directs the Project on Opportunity and Taxation at the Institute for
Policy Studies. Distributed by OtherWords.org.