Dear America,
I've been talking about Donald Trump's lack of a plan to accomplish what he says he will, but I haven't really checked to see what he specifically proposes to do. So I went to his website to look, and I discovered that my opinion of him hasn't changed as a consequence of learning more details about what a Trump administration would do for us, or more aptly to us, assuming that he could get congress to implement what he says he will do. Here are some examples.
His tax reduction proposal would increase my taxes by about 20% based on his 25% tax rate and $30,000 standard deduction for my income bracket. His tax reduction for business--from 35% to 15%--will have little effect on companies like GE, which paid no tax a couple of years ago, but it will serve to augment the incomes of most businesses. How that would help this country escapes me since American business is already sitting on an estimated $2 trillion or more in idle capital. And as to the 10% tax rate on repatriated corporate wealth, which he claims will result in billions coming back to this country, with all that cash on hand already going unspent, Trump's little sop for big business isn't likely to find its way into capital expenditures and more jobs. But nowhere in his tax plan is there a penalty for outsourcing jobs overseas, nor is there a tariff on goods sold in this country after being manufactured abroad. Thus, the perpetuation of the era of transfer of American wealth to other countries by dint of shipping our jobs to them seems to be part of the Trump plan by virtue of inaction on Trump's part. As to the minimum wage, Trump has gone from saying that wages are too high in this country so we shouldn't increase the minimum wage in late 2015 to...well, saying that wages are too high and there is no need to increase the minimum wage because he is going to bring back so many jobs--with his tax plan for repatriation, I guess--that people will be able to earn more than the minimum wage (if you smell bovine feces in there somewhere, join the club). But since the Spring when he said that, he has gone on to say that the federal minimum should be $10...or so. Not enough in my opinion since some states and municipalities have already gone that high or higher, and thus, a $10 minimum wage is virtually meaningless.
As to non-economic issues, there is the war against ISIL. Trump says he has a secret plan, so there's no way to comment on it. All we know is that he wants to be very tough on ISIL...in some way, as if that's not what bombing the hell out of them, as we are doing already, isn't. In this area, as well as in most others, Trump's policy is, I'll take care of it, believe me. And I don't. On the issue of abortion, I think he's against it now, but that's a recent development. On healthcare, Trump wants to repeal the Affordable Care Act and replace it with free market reforms, whatever that means. He thinks that doctors should be more transparent with regard to prices of procedures and that insurers should be able to sell their products across state lines. He also said something about the pharmaceutical industry, but I'll be damned if I can figure out what it is in the end. Then he wants to make Medicare a block grant program, in other words, he wants to send bulk payments to the states and let them decide how much to pay and when, as was done in the nineties when Bill Clinton signed off on the Republicans' "reform of welfare as we know it." Now, in some states only 4% of the block grant money they receive actually goes to making welfare payments to those in need, the rest going into supplementation of education budgets, law enforcement training and various other programs only-tenuously connected to financial assistance, if at all. Of course, you know that he is going to have Mexico build his wall--again we are just supposed to believe him on this even though the Mexicans have steadfastly denied that they will ever acquiesce in Trump's demand that they do so--and he's going to "humanely" deport about 11 million people. With regard to the second amendment--which starts, by the way with the phrase "a well regulated Militia...that's well regulated, not un-regulated--Trump just wants us all to carry guns so we can protect ourselves. Apparently the statistics that show gun owners to be more likely to be killed with those buns by people who accost them than they are to use those guns to kill those who accost them haven't come to his attention, nor has the ability of anyone to buy an unregistered gun at a gun show because congress refuses to act. And as far as improving our mental healthcare system, I assume he wants that to operate on a free market basis just like the rest of our healthcare system. What are the odds that the system we now have--the free market system--is going to improve on its own. He also wants to improve our energy self-sufficiency by increasing coal production and drilling for oil and gas virtually everywhere, though he makes no mention of renewable energy or conservation like LED bulbs in place of incandescent ones and a solar panel on every roof, right next to a little wind mill.
To wrap this all up, I always thought that Trump had no real ideas. But now that I have read his ideas on his website, I know I was right and I'm more scared than ever. His almost bizarre justifications for them, I realize now, really are the mark of a self-deluded narcissistic megalomaniac, so I feel much better. Now I know I'm not wrong to be afraid...very, very afraid.
Your friend,
Mike
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