Donald Trump promises policies if elected president in November that would benefit voters’ pocketbooks, but offers few details on how he plans to pay for them — a series of campaign promises that fly in the face of longstanding Republican Party orthodoxy. of prudence and little administration.
Last week, Trump announced that the government would pay the cost of fertility treatments such as in vitro fertilization, which could reach tens of thousands of dollars per cycle, if he becomes president again. He has also proposed eliminating taxes on employee tips and Social Security benefits, which nonpartisan accountants say would add hundreds of billions of dollars to the deficit. His campaign has not said how he plans to pay for those ideas.
Along with his plans to extend key parts of his 2017 tax cut and further cut corporate taxes, Trump’s policy plan would add nearly $6 trillion to the deficit over 10 years, according to a Penn Wharton budget model. analysis.
Trump’s plans mean sharing what now-Utah Senator Mitt Romney, who lost to former President Barack Obama in the 2012 presidential election and was once considered a “gift.” Trump’s rhetoric shows how he has transformed a party from one that at least promoted fiscal responsibility — even though the national debt actually skyrocketed during the last two GOP administrations — to one where a presidential candidate is free to do whatever it takes to win.
Trump’s lofty campaign promises are nothing new. During his 2016 run he promised to build hundreds of miles of wall along the US southern border if elected and make Mexico pay for it. Mexico did not pay; The US government picked up the tab on the parts of the border wall it was able to build. Trump also promised to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act with a “much better” health care program. That never came to pass either.
What’s notable about Trump’s second run at the White House, however, is his focus on wooing two critical Democratic constituencies: women who are skeptical of his position on abortion rights, and black and Latino working-class voters. Vice President Kamala Harris, for example, quickly endorsed eliminating tip taxes last month shortly after Trump, a recognition of the idea’s popularity among union workers in Nevada and other states.
“Trump doesn’t have a solid foundation in policy development, it’s developed over many years of working with conservative leaders,” GOP strategist Kevin Madden, who advised Romney’s 2012 presidential campaign, told HuffPost on Wednesday. “He is commercial and approaches his audience the same way any real estate professional or salesperson would.”
“Both Harris and Trump are under tremendous pressure to compete for the remaining swing voters,” he added. “Their strategies aren’t all that different in that they deal with major issues like inflation, housing, and health care by making big promises that actually deliver, even though the costs and prospects of turning those promises into actual legislation may be out of reach.”
Harris, meanwhile, has proposed more generous child and income tax credits to support families and payments to make housing more affordable for Americans, insisting that the return on investment these policies would have on the economy would make them pay for themselves operationally. But because he supports reversing some of Trump’s 2017 tax cuts and raising the corporate tax rate, his program is estimated to cost significantly less than his GOP rival’s: about $1.7 trillion over 10 years.
Whoever wins in November will have to make good on their vague campaign promises by working with Congress to craft legislation. Lawmakers must decide whether and how to extend Trump’s tax cuts, which are set to expire next year for individuals, and agree on raising the debt limit — two difficult tasks that will almost certainly require horse-trading on both sides of the aisle.
Over the weekend, some of Trump’s allies on Capitol Hill announced their opposition to his plans to have the government pay for IVF or mandate that insurance companies cover the treatment. Sen. Lindsey Graham (RS.C.) told ABC’s “This Week” that he doesn’t support the idea and suggested offering Americans a means-tested tax credit to help them pay for IVF.
For his part, Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.) expressed concern about the impact of such policies on the deficit. “There’s going to be a problem of how you pay for it. That problem is always there,” he told CNN.
North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum dismissed the idea that either candidate would be able to fulfill their campaign promises of new government programs if they do not gain full control of Congress.
“There’s not going to be any mandate, there’s not going to be any freebies from Harris unless one party has control of both chambers, so a lot of this is campaign talk and post,” he quoth in a separate interview with CNN.
With the November election less than three months away, both campaigns are focusing more on the here and now: getting votes and motivating people to vote. That’s why candidates avoid details in favor of an agenda they say they help cost-conscious voters save money, especially with high prices on their minds.
“Election promises can be more or less clear. The clearer they are, the more it looks like the candidate is trying to buy votes,” warned George Washington University professor and director of its political leadership program Todd Belt.
“‘Cutting the marginal tax rate’ or ‘Cutting the corporate tax rate’ are less clear-cut promises that don’t need to be explained to those they benefit from. But the constituency certainly knows, and these promises fly under the radar,” he continued.
Whether a campaign idea counts as a “gift” depends on how easily voters can see who will benefit from it, Belt added. “The promises are not new, but the way they are discussed is different.”
Trump and Harris will get a chance to discuss their campaign proposals in their first presidential debate, hosted by ABC News in Philadelphia on Tuesday.
