Hillary Clinton Twists the Knife in Donald Trump’s Tax Proposals
By AMY CHOZICK
AUG. 17, 2016
nytimes.com
Hillary Clinton leaned into her plans to raise taxes on the wealthiest Americans on Wednesday, denouncing Donald J. Trump’s tax proposals as a boondoggle for billionaires.
“We’re going to tax the wealthy who have made all of the income gains in the last 15 years,” Mrs. Clinton told a crowd in Cleveland. “The superwealthy, corporations, Wall Street,” she declared emphatically, “they’re going to have to invest in education, in skills training, in infrastructure.”
For months, Mrs. Clinton has attacked Mr. Trump’s economic agenda in broad terms, portraying him as a follower of the “trickle down” orthodoxy of previous Republican administrations. But Mr. Trump’s release of his tax plans last week in Detroit allowed her to begin to criticize them more specifically.
Just as President Obama attacked his 2012 rival, Mitt Romney, for paying a lower effective tax rate than the vast majority of Americans, Mrs. Clinton said that Mr. Trump’s plan would benefit people in his own income bracket, declaring that he “would pay a lower rate than middle-class families” if it were put into effect. Mr. Trump has recommended cutting the top marginal income tax rate to 33 percent from the current 39.6 percent, and broadening deductions for things like child care. Mr. Trump, conversely, has portrayed Mrs. Clinton as a tax-and-spend Democrat who supports policies that have caused 15 years of virtually stagnant wages. “For an economy desperate for a jump start, Clinton’s plan will only act as a straitjacket,” his campaign said on Wednesday.
Mrs. Clinton’s spending plans, including a $250 billion investment in infrastructure and a $350 billion plan to make college more affordable, rely largely on changes to the tax code that would raise rates on the affluent and corporations.
She supports the “ Buffett rule,” which would require millionaires to pay at least 30 percent of their income in taxes, and wants to close the carried interest loophole that lets hedge fund managers pay a lesser tax rate on much of their income. She has also proposed an “exit tax” on corporations that move jobs overseas, and wants to limit tax deductions, impose a 4 percent tax surcharge for income over $5 million, and close corporate tax loopholes to help pay for her costly domestic agenda. continues at the link |
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