Donald Trump takes a page out of ‘Reaganomics’

Donald Trump Photo: AP

By Daniel Halper and Bob Fredericks

Donald Trump called Monday for a “tax revolution” modeled on the vision of Ronald Reagan that would slash income tax rates, cut corporate taxes and create millions of jobs for a new era of prosperity.

“These reforms will offer the biggest tax revolution since the Reagan tax reform, which unleashed years of continued economic growth and job creation,” the GOP presidential nominee told the Detroit Economic Club.

“I want to jump-start America. It can be done, and it won’t even be that hard,” he said.
 

In an hour-long address that also called for toughening trade policies and easing regulatory directives, Trump proposed to simplify the tax code to just three brackets from the current seven — 12, 25 and 33 percent.

“I am proposing an across-the-board income tax reduction, especially for middle-income Americans,” Trump proclaimed, though the highest wage earners would see their rate fall from 39.6 to 33 percent.

“The rich will pay their fair share, but no one will pay so much that it destroys jobs or undermines our ability as a nation to compete.”

Trump’s proposal from last year had envisioned four brackets: zero, 10, 20 and 25 percent.

The mogul also called for capping corporate taxes at 15 percent, down from the current 35 percent rate, a move long advocated by Republicans.

And he repeated common campaign themes of scrapping ObamaCare, renegotiating NAFTA, and rejecting the Trans-Pacific Partnership to stop the flow of US jobs overseas.

The speech also included a temporary moratorium on new federal regulations and revival of the Keystone pipeline project, which was killed by President Obama.

“President Obama has issued close to 400 new major regulations since taking office, each with a cost to the American economy of $100 million or more,” Trump charged.

He said he would “cancel all illegal and overreaching executive orders.”

The Detroit remarks were Trump’s first on the economy since he announced a 13-man team of economic advisers last week, but he also said he consulted with his daughter Ivanka on how to make child care less expensive.

Trump advocated allowing parents to fully deduct the average cost of child care from their taxable income.

The current Child and Dependent Care tax credit is capped at 35 percent of qualifying expenses, or up to $3,000 for one child or $6,000 for two or more.

He favored repealing the estate tax, or “death tax,” as critics call it.

“No family will have to pay the death tax. American workers have paid taxes their whole lives, and they should not be taxed again at death. It’s just plain wrong,” Trump said.

Hedge-funders would take it on the chin, as Trump vowed to end the “carried interest loophole,” which allows them to pay the lower capital gains tax rate instead of the regular income tax rate.

But, along with everyone else, they would also get a lower overall income tax rate.

Moving from taxes, Trump proposed stronger protections for American intellectual property, pointedly accusing China of being the worst offender.

Trump repeatedly used Detroit as an example of how Democratic policies — supported by his opponent, Hillary Clinton — have devastated American manufacturing.

“The city of Detroit is the living, breathing example of my opponent’s failed economic agenda. Every policy that has failed this city and so many others is a policy supported by Hillary Clinton,” he said.

“She supports the high taxes and radical regulation that forced jobs out of your community . . . and 
the immigration policies that have strained local budgets and the trade deals like NAFTA . . . that have shipped your jobs to Mexico and other countries,” he charged.

The speech came after Trump got tangled up in a week-long dispute with the Gold Star parents of a Muslim-American soldier who was killed in Iraq and sparred with GOP leaders including House Speaker Paul Ryan and Arizona Sen. John McCain.

Stephen Moore, one of Trump’s top economic advisers, said the expansive proposals should put those episodes to rest.

“When he speaks with the Teleprompter and stays on message, he’s very effective . . . I was highly impressed. Hopefully, it’s the start of a new Donald Trump,” Moore told The Post.

But Clinton, campaigning in Florida, mocked the speech as nothing new.

“Trickle-down economics does not help our economy grow, it does not help the vast majority of Americans, but it does really help the most wealthy. We’re going to make the wealthy pay their fair share in taxes for a change,” Clinton said.

Filed under 2016 presidential election ,  detroit ,  donald trump ,  economic development ,  ronald reagan