Morning Plum: Donald Trump is in on the joke, and the joke’s on you

[kpete]

Morning Plum: Donald Trump is in on the joke, and the joke’s on you

By Greg Sargent September 15 at 8:59 AM

Politico’s Ben White talks to a number of Wall Street executives and discovers that they are growing “increasingly terrified” that Donald Trump “could actually win the Republican nomination for president.”

Trump has vowed to raise taxes on capital gains, claiming that executive pay in America is a “complete joke.” One senior figure on Wall Street tells Politico that investors who discussed Trump at a recent lunch were “taking him very seriously,” adding: “He taps into frustrations that are very real and he is a master manipulator of the media.”

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Trump’s suggestion that his rivals will “let” Wall Streeters get away with paying too little in taxes threatens to let Republican voters in on the joke. Ross Douthat has suggested that as a billionaire, Trump could actually be more credible in this regard, since he is letting you in on the secret, from the inside, that “high finance can afford higher taxes.” And guess what, Trump seems to be saying, it won’t destroy the economy or cost your bartender father his job. Trump has been in on the joke for a long time, and the joke’s on you. But the joke is over.



https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2015/09/15/morning-plum-donald-trump-is-in-on-the-joke-and-the-jokes-on-you/

[Mass]

1. The joke is on us, if we take Trump on his word.

Because he is a master manipulator of the media, but the truth is that Trump is for Trump, and not surprisingly, for all his rhetorics, the rare details of his tax plan seem remarkably similar to Bush (lower taxtes for everybody except hedge funds managers).

[Mass]

2. This is Trump plan in 2011, but if suckers want to believe he is a populist.

http://www.ontheissues.org/Celeb/Donald_Trump_Tax_Reform.htm

Up to $30,000, you pay 1%
From $30,000 to $100,000, you pay 5%
From $100,000 to $1 million, you pay 10%
On $1 million or above, you pay 15%

: kill the death tax; lower the tax on capital gains & dividends; eliminate corporate taxes; and a 20% import tax.

[Jim__]

3. Even if Trump were president, he couldn't raise or lower taxes.

That would require a making a yoooge deal with congress; and they're all on Wall Street's payroll.