Trump's big con is a flop

[marmar]

Trump's big con is a flop
Trump's only legislative accomplishment was a massive tax cut for the rich — and the results are now in

By HEATHER DIGBY PARTON
Columnist
PUBLISHED MARCH 6, 2024 9:03AM (EST)


(Salon) As I watched the Super Tuesday returns last night I was struck by exit polls that showed the economy is the most important issue to many Republican voters. They believe Donald Trump will be better for them financially than President Biden. Considering how successfully Biden has managed a swift recovery from the economic catastrophe he inherited, I find that disturbing. Yet, according to the New York Times, a majority of the electorate is suffering from "collective amnesia" and don't remember why they ousted Trump back in 2020. Apparently, they are nostalgic for the golden days of a Trump administration that never existed.

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Donald Trump's only legislative accomplishment in his first term was a massive tax cut bill for the rich. But that wasn't really his accomplishment, was it? That was the evergreen policy goal of the Republican Party, especially the blue-eyed dream boat Speaker of the House Paul Ryan, the Ayn Rand devotee who believed that rich men were heroes who needed to be allowed to run free and unencumbered by civic responsibility so that capitalism might save humanity. That the Republican tax cut personally benefited the new, wealthy president made it all the sweeter.

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That tired old saw goes back to the Reagan administration which popularized a quack theory called "supply side economics" championed by economist Arthur Laffer. He claimed that the more you cut taxes the greater the revenue to the government. Even then everyone knew it was ridiculous. Reagan's budget director, David Stockman, actually spilled the beans to journalist William Greider, telling him, "It's kind of hard to sell 'trickle down, so the supply-side formula was the only way to get a tax policy that was really 'trickle down.' Supply-side is 'trickle-down' theory." Trump gave Arthur Laffer the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2019.

Today another supply side guru, Stephen Moore, formerly of the Club for Growth, has co-authored the Project 2025 economic plan to completely "reform" the U.S. Treasury. He's pushing to privatize Social Security which Trump has never explicitly ruled out and told The Guardian, “Yes, I am strongly in favor of cutting tax rates to make [the] American economy No 1.” And this would presumably be in addition to extending the Trump tax cuts from 2017 which are up for renewal next year. ................(more)

https://www.salon.com/2024/03/06/big-con-is-a-flop/