Revealing a plan to ‘jump-start America’
DETROIT— Trying to turn the page after a tumultuous campaign stretch, Donald Trump unleashed a blistering attack Monday on Hillary Clinton’s approach to the economy while promising he would provide deep tax cuts and jolt middle class workers back to prosperity. Trump also revisited his opposition to current trade deals, including his plan to renegotiate the NAFTA trade agreement with Canada and Mexico and improve intellectual property protections.
Trump’s speech to the Detroit Economic Club reflected the Republican presidential nominee’s attempt to reboot and redirect the conversation to his strength: the economy. Trump offered a few new policy specifics but trained much of his attention on his Democratic opponent.
“The one common feature of every Hillary Clinton idea is that it punishes you for working and doing business in the United States,” Trump said. He said he wants to “jump-start America” and added, “It won’t even be that hard.”
Turning to taxes, Trump said no business should pay more than 15 per cent of its income in taxes, a major drop from the current 35-per-cent corporate tax rate.
He revamped his previous proposal, unveiled during the GOP primary, by increasing the amount that the highest-individual income earners would pay. Trump said he wants to simplify the tax code, which currently has seven tax brackets, to three: 12 per cent, 25 per cent and 33 per cent of income after deductions. Trump’s proposal from last year had envisioned four brackets: zero, 10 per cent, 20 per cent and 25 per cent.
In a new proposal, Trump called for allowing parents to fully deduct the average cost of child care from their taxable income. It’s a theme Trump and his daughter, Ivanka, first introduced during the Republican National Convention as his campaign seeks to broaden its appeal..
The current Child and Dependent Care tax credit includes caps for qualifying expenses that Trump’s plan would eliminate, though a senior campaign aide said there would be an income limit for eligibility.