Test out the candidates’ tax proposals
I’m just not sure how much stock I can put into the Vox.com Presidential Candidate Tax Plan Calculator. Maybe I just don’t want to know so I can’t get any more flustered then I already am. Vox points out that “The presidential candidates have widely varying tax proposals.”
To wit: Donald Trump and Ted Cruz propose massive cuts that would greatly reduce federal incomes taxes on everyone (especially the wealthy) and pay for it all by cutting a wide host of government programs.
On the other side of the ticket, Bernie Sanders proposes virtually the opposite of Cruz and Trump: tax increases for everyone including the wealthy, and somehow he’ll add comprehensive government programs. Meanwhile, Hillary Clinton proposes much smaller tax increases, all focused on the wealthy.
Cuts and breaks
Vox.com’s Ezra Klein wrote a fascinating article on what is to be gained and/or lost by all the presidential candidate’s tax proposals. Believe me, I’m not picking favorites but of the four candidates Klein writes, “Cruz would have to do something on the order of eliminating Medicaid, the Children’s Health Insurance Program, all federal education spending to include Pell grants, K-12 subsidies, Head Start and similar programs, all federal spending on justice to include the FBI and DEA, all international spending, all federal transportation systems and all veterans spending programs. Trump on the other hand would have to do everything Cruz does and then on top of that find another Trillion dollars in savings.”
I haven’t even gotten to the point of asking you to plug in some numbers in the Tax Plan Calculator. Heck, it doesn’t even have to be real. Make something up and plug the numbers in here if you haven’t already.
What’s good for the goose
Vox.com suggests you, “Play around with difference incomes other than your own to get a better idea of how each candidate deals with the poor, middle class and the wealthy.” You should come up with the following assumptions:
- Clinton proposes keeping things mostly the same as the current administration.
- Sanders wants to implement massive changes across the board including the poor.
- Cruz and Trump propose cuts for everyone but you’ll keep more change in your pocket if you’re wealthy.
The current tax proposals looks like it has all the elements of a new game show: We can call it “Wheel of Misfortune.”
