One month before the election, the former American president and the Democratic vice-president are head-on on almost every issue but agree to promise significant tax cuts, in defiance of an abysmal public debt .
« My plan is to make permanent the tax cuts of my first term, massive cuts, the largest in history », recalls Donald Trump at each of his meetings. Kamala Harris she promises “ tax cuts for 100 million Americans “. There are some for everyone : the current vice-president wants to reinstate tax credits granted to the lowest salaries, to parents with dependent children, for business creators, to finance a first real estate purchase… Donald Trump wants to lower taxes on companies, exempt retirees’ pensions from income tax, eliminate all taxation on tips. A measure which would still concern 4 million Americansoverrepresented in some of the key states likely to swing the vote in November. The proposal seems all the more opportunistic since Kamala Harris immediately took it up.
Promises only bind those who believe them, however powerful the President of the United States may be, he or she will have to convince Congress, which will not be easy. The two candidates were careful not to offer detailed costing of their proposals – which Donald Trump sometimes seems to improvise during his meetings. Nevertheless, several circles of economists are there tried. The tax credits promised by Donald Trump would, for example, represent 10,000 billion dollars less revenue for the federal budget and over 10 years his proposals would widen the deficit by 6,000 billion dollars, Kamala Harris does a little better, her proposals to it would not widen the deficit “ what » of 2000 billion dollars…
Federal debt exceeds $3.5 trillion
The deficit is the big thing missing from the campaign. Donald Trump assures that his first term has “ proven that targeted tax credits do not increase the deficit, on the contrary they reduce the deficit by promoting growth “. Except that when Donald Trump arrives at the White House in 2017 he inherits a federal deficit of less than 600 billion dollars, upon his departure – certainly after two years of pandemic – the deficit has exploded like never before to more than 2700 billion dollars. Economists are also not convinced by the assertions of the Republican candidate who assures that the import taxes that he intends to increase will fill the coffers of the federal state.
For her part, Kamala Harris is content to assure that she will keep her promises “ while reducing the deficit “. It is true that his plan also provides to increase taxes on billionairesbut again without giving the slightest detail. But apart from these declarations which amount to brushing the subject aside, the deficit seems not to be a subject. Wrong: the federal debt exceeded $3.5 trillion during the summer, for the first time in history. Thanks to strong growth, the United States can still afford it, but economists warn: if you dig deeper, you end up hitting rock bottom.
