Trump's Economic Reset Short-Changes His Base
Other parts of Trump's agenda sound great for corporations and upper-income workers but don't offer much to his working-class base. The "death tax" he promises to scrap actually is the estate tax, which effects only 0.2 (zero-point-two) percent of all estates. It doesn't kick in until the estate exceeds $5.4 million for an individual or $10.9 million for a married couple.
Call it what you want but it's not a tax break for the poor, no matter how many upset waitresses or taxi drivers I run into who think it applies to them.
"I want to jumpstart America," he said. "It can be done and it won't even be that hard."
Right. On other occasions he has said he can beat the Islamic State "quickly," too. In neither case does he give even a hint as to why we should believe he can succeed -- and "quickly" -- after so many others have failed at any speed.
Trump simplistically blamed Detroit's economic woes on the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), signed by President Bill Clinton, and other trade deals -- which, by the way, received bipartisan support. Some workers win and others lose in such deals. Although on balance the nation's economy has benefited, the fate of displaced workers has been largely overlooked as a mainstream political issue until Trumpism caught fire in this election cycle.
Those same issues fueled Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders' insurgent campaign on the Democratic side, too, effectively enough to move former Secretary of State Clinton to the left, even on the Trans-Pacific Partnership that President Barack Obama negotiated.
Trump's slump in the polls may show a repudiation of his campaign manners. But the issues are still important, even when the candidates fall short.
========
(E-mail Clarence Page at cpage@tribune.com.)
(c) 2016 CLARENCE PAGE DISTRIBUTED BY TRIBUNE MEDIA SERVICES, INC.
