Donald claims his economic policies are good for working families, when he's really just
protecting his own wealth.
By
An
old saying asserts that falsehoods come in three escalating levels: Lies, damn
lies, and statistics. But now there’s an even higher category of lies: a Donald
Trump speech.
Take
his recent address on specific economic policies he’d push to benefit hard-hit
working families, including an almost-hilarious discourse on the rank
unfairness of the estate tax.
“No
family will have to pay the death tax,” he solemnly pledged, adding that
“American workers have paid taxes their whole lives, and they should not be
taxed again at death.”
But
workers aren’t taxed at death. The first $5.4 million of any deceased person’s
estate is already exempt from this tax, meaning 99.8 percent of Americans pay
absolutely zero. And the tiny percentage of families who do pay estate taxes
are multimillionaires — not workers.
Of course, Trump knows this. He’s shamefully trying to deceive real workers into thinking he stands for them, when in fact it’s his own wealth he’s protecting.
In
the same speech, he offered a new childcare tax break to
help working families by allowing parents to fully deduct childcare costs from
their taxes.
With a tender personal touch, Trump said his daughter Ivanka urged
him to provide this helping hand to hard working parents because “she feels so
strongly about this.”
Another
deception — 70 percent of American households don’t have enough yearly income
to warrant itemizing deductions. So the Americans most in need of childcare
help get nothing from Trump’s melodramatic posturing.
Once
again, his generous tax benefits would only flow uphill to wealthy families
like his, giving the richest Americans a government subsidy for purchasing
platinum-level care for their kids.
As
an early 20th century labor leader noted, “Figures don’t lie, but liars do
figure.”
OtherWords columnist Jim
Hightower is a radio commentator, writer, and public speaker. He’s the editor
of the populist newsletter, The Hightower Lowdown. Distributed by OtherWords.org.
