Trump hails military gains, tax cuts
Dems blitz of ads attack GOP plan
PALM BEACH, FLORIDA, Nov 23, (Agencies): US President Donald Trump gave a bullish Thanksgiving address to troops overseas on Thursday, hailing progress in Afghanistan and against ISIS, and telling them they were fighting for “something real,” including a stock market at record highs and his promised “big, beautiful fat tax cuts.”
Speaking in a live video teleconference from Palm Beach, Florida, with military personnel serving in Afghanistan, Iraq and elsewhere, Trump told them they were “very, very special people.”
He called troops in Afghanistan “brave, incredible fighters” who had “turned it around” in the past three to four months.
“We opened it up; we said go ahead, we’re going to fight to win,” he said. “We’re not fighting any more to just walk around, we are fighting to win.”
Trump said the Marines were inflicting “defeat after defeat” on Islamic State, and again credited his change of approach compared to that of the Obama administration.
“They weren’t letting you win before; they were letting you break even . ... They weren’t letting you win,” he said.
Trump told the troops they could look forward at home to the benefits of “big, beautiful fat tax cuts,” a stock market at record highs, jobs and economic growth.
“We’re doing well at home, the economy is doing great,” Trump said. “You’re fighting for something real, you’re fighting for something good.”
Trump took one of his trademark swipes at the news media as he spoke from a lavishly decorated room at his Mar-a-Lago resort, telling the military personnel he was addressing that journalists were in the room, and adding:
“Better me than you; believe me fellas, better me than you.”
Later, Trump and his wife, Melania, handed out sandwiches and shook hands at a Coast Guard station in nearby Riviera Beach and told personnel his administration was building up wealth so it could protect the country through military acquisitions.
Talking about his plans for boosting military spending, he said contractors saved the best equipment for
Trump
US troops. “When we sell to other countries - you never know about an ally — an ally can turn,” he said.
Trump said he had told the troops overseas the country was “doing great,” thanks to his cuts in “regulation and all the waste and all the abuse.”
“I told them ... you folks are fighting so hard and working so hard, and it’s nice that you’re working for something that’s really starting to work.”
While optimism about a major tax overhaul has helped push the US stock market up for most of this year, Trump is still seeking his first major legislative win after almost a year in office.
According to a majority of economists in a recent Reuters poll, US Republicans are not expected to push the tax cuts through Congress this year. Economists are also skeptical that the legislation would provide a significant boost to the economy.
Meanwhile, the tax overhaul pushed by President Donald Trump and fellow Republicans is prompting a slew of attack ads by Democrats and progressive groups that say the legislation would lavish benefits on corporations and the rich, while harming the middle class.
One ad launched on Tuesday warns that the Republican tax plan would leave Maine residents “lost in the wilderness” as it pans through a dark, deserted forest.
The television spot, paid for by the group Not One Penny, urges the state’s Republican senator, Susan Collins, who is undecided on the plan and whose vote could help decide its fate in the Senate, “not to lose her way.”
Another Not One Penny ad in Nevada, where Republican Senator Dean Heller faces a tough re-election race next year, says that the Senate plan is “a tax break for billionaires and wealthy corporations, paid for by higher taxes on every day Nevadans.”
Republicans are looking to pass tax legislation within the next few weeks. Groups spending millions on the ads are aiming to sway public opinion in the final stretch of debate over the legislation, which would cut the corporate tax rate to 20 percent from 35 percent, and reduce individual income tax rates.
Liberals see criticism of the tax plan as a potent issue for the 2018 US congressional elections, when all 435 House seats are up for re-election, along with 33 in the Senate.
The House of Representatives passed its tax bill last week. The Senate plans to vote once lawmakers return to Washington after this week’s US Thanksgiving holiday.