The Republican tax plan, endorsed by Trump and set to be released on Wednesday, will reportedly “explode the deficit,” according to Trump’s own alma mater, the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
Per the Penn Wharton Budget Model, over the first decade, the new plan would increase the deficit by approximately $1 trillion. By 2040, it could cost between $2 trillion and as much as $10.6 trillion.
The study refuted White House claims that corporate tax cuts would directly benefit workers, estimating that labor wages would only increase by as much as 1.4 percent over the course of a decade. It also contested the Trump administration’s GDP growth levels, showing only about 0.2 percent of extra growth per year.
Despite traditional Republican opposition to adding to the deficit, Republicans have rallied around a plan that would do just that. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, for his part, has argued that the plan will stimulate economic growth, a concept that has long since been disproven to help anyone other than the ultra wealthy.
In Kansas, Republicans enacted similar across-the-board tax cuts intended to increase GDP. Instead, state revenue plummeted by nearly $700 million per year, or about 8 percent, from 2013 to 2016. Schools were forced to reduce their school year calendars, highway repairs slowed, and much-needed aid was not delivered to the poor. This year, legislation was passed that effectively rescinded the law.
Trump may brag about his Ivy League education, but that institution is not mincing words in exposing just how dangerous his tax plan will be for 99 percent of Americans.
