Taxes

[xoxoxoBruce]

From a 1999 CNN interview with Donald Trump.

Trump proposes massive one-time tax on the rich
By Phil Hirschkorn/CNN November 9, 1999

NEW YORK (CNN) -- Billionaire businessman Donald Trump has a plan to pay off the national debt, grant a middle class a tax cut, and keep Social Security afloat: tax rich people like himself. Trump, a prospective candidate for the Reform Party presidential nomination, is proposing a one-time "net worth tax" on individuals and trusts worth $10 million or more.

By Trump's calculations, his proposed 14.25 percent levy on such net worth would raise $5.7 trillion and wipe out the debt in one full swoop. "The plan I am proposing today does not involve smoke and mirrors, phony numbers, financial gimmicks, or the usual economic chicanery you usually find in Disneyland-on-the-Potomac," Trump said.

Trump would exempt the value of an individual's principal home from the net worth total. "By my calculations, 1 percent of Americans, who control 90 percent of the wealth in this country, would be affected by my plan," Trump said. "The other 99 percent of the people would get deep reductions in their federal income taxes," he said.

Eliminating the national debt would save the federal government $200 billion a year in interest payments, Trump said. He proposes to earmark half the savings for middle class tax cuts, and the other half for Social Security. Trump said depositing $100 billion annually in the Social Security trust fund would generate $3 trillion "over the next 30-years, when the trust fund is scheduled to go broke" and instead keep the fund "solvent through the next century."

The tax also would lead to the repeal the current federal inheritance tax "which really hurts farmers and small businessman and women more than anything else," Trump said.

Did he mean it, or as the Reform Party candidate it's a hail mary play, knowing if by some miracle he got elected, congress would shoot it down, so he wouldn't have to pay?

[Griff]

Trump is a slippery one. He seems to be doing well in the polls as a self made man of inherited wealth and government bailouts the perfect foil for someone like Sanders. I've only seen clips of his show so I don't know his full public persona, but he seems like a general election loser when the gloves come off.

Whenever I hear his voice I get Rush lyrics stuck in my head. ...echoes with the sound of salesmen

[DanaC]

He makes my skin crawl. Dead eyes, man.

[tw]

Originally Posted by DanaC

He makes my skin crawl. Dead eyes, man.

Look at his support. There are that many wacko extremists out there waiting to be told how to think. That should concern you more.

[Gravdigr]

Trump is only there to draw votes away from the other guy(s). He's a decoy.

[BigV]

Originally Posted by Gravdigr

Trump is only there to draw votes away from the other guy(s). He's a decoy.

Trump *will* draw votes, and they'll be from somebody, but I don't believe he's a decoy. He's a narcissist and a filthy rich one at that. His is a vanity campaign, and he's winning every day we're talking about him. That's totally worth it to him. As a person who would govern our nation, he has nothing going for him, he's a clown. But *that* race isn't happening now, this is all about other stuff, like attention.

[Happy Monkey]

I love the theory that Trump is a Democratic plant. Apparently someone can pretend to be the worst the Republican Party has to offer, a narcissistic, racist, anti-intellectual, warmongering blowhard, and win in the polls.

It's like a relative of Poe's Law.

[BigV]

A relative of Poe's Law? I think it's an example of Poe's Law.

hm. No, not exactly. Trump's real, he's not a parody. But there are people who sincerely believe he's a legitimate candidate, and he's not. He's got practically nothing that a legitimate candidate needs to be legitimate.

He is entertaining to watch though, kind of like those short videos where the young, dumb people do ill-advised things that end badly, but not fatally. I can hardly stand to watch some of them, just like Trump. **shiver**

[xoxoxoBruce]

He claims to be "the most militarist person in the room". That rings the bell for a lot of radio talk show listeners.

[tw]

Originally Posted by Happy Monkey

Apparently someone can pretend to be the worst the Republican Party has to offer, a narcissistic, racist, anti-intellectual, warmongering blowhard, and win in the polls.

It says how many of us have now converted from patriotic American moderates to anti-American extremists.

[classicman]

"us" bwahahahahahahaaaaaaaa.