Clinton, Trump Restate Tax Policies In Final Debate

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By Tax-News

On October 19th, in their third and final debate before the US election, Republican candidate Donald Trump and Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton restated their widely different tax policies, without providing any new detail.

In reply to a question on tax policy, Clinton plugged her policies to provide the funds to grow the economy and “support middle class families,” by having “the wealthy pay their fair share.” She repeated, however, that she would “not raise taxes on anyone making $250,000 or less [and] not add a penny to the [federal] debt.”

By contrast, she said, Trump’s plan “advocates for the largest tax cuts we’ve ever seen. … His whole plan is to give the biggest tax breaks ever to the wealthy and to corporations, adding $20 trillion to our debt. … It truly will be trickle-down economics on steroids. … We tried that. It has not worked.”

Trump countered that her plan “to raise taxes is a disaster. … We’re going to cut taxes massively. We’ll cut business taxes massively. They’re going to start hiring people. We’re going to bring the $2.5 trillion [in deferred US multinational foreign earnings] that’s offshore back into the country. We’re going to start the [economic growth] engine rolling again.”

He also pointed out that he would re-negotiate the US’s “horrible” existing trade agreements, under which “jobs are being sucked out of our economy.” He called the North American Free Trade Agreement “one of the worst deals ever. …Our jobs have fled to Mexico.” He again accused Clinton (which she strenuously denied) of wanting to sign the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade treaty.