Maddow Blog | Trump eyes even more tax breaks for the wealthy, big corporations

Donald Trump hasn’t unveiled the details of his tax plan, but as Bloomberg News reported over the weekend, the former president is starting to let the public know about his intentions — and who’d benefit from his plans.

At a rally in New Jersey, the presumptive Republican nominee boasted about an apparent across-the-board tax cut, which would include “big” new tax breaks for the “upper class” and the “business class.”

For those who keep an eye on Trump’s rhetoric in general, the comments weren’t altogether surprising. It was, after all, late last year when he told attendees at a Mar-a-Lago event, “You’re rich as hell. ... We’re gonna give you tax cuts.” Soon after, he told Fox News he was interested in another round of tax breaks for corporations.

The Washington Post published a related report in the fall, noting that Team Trump was “plotting an aggressive new set of tax cuts,” including “deeper cuts to both individual and corporate tax rates.”

It’s worth emphasizing for context that the presumptive GOP nominee and his team aren’t talking about replacing their 2017 tax policy. On the contrary, they’re determined to keep those tax breaks in place — including extending the measures that are set to expire — and then keep going with even more cuts.

The fact that Trump’s 2017 package was a failure is an inconvenient detail that much of the political world chooses to overlook.

How would Trump pay for another round of tax breaks? He hasn’t said, and that almost certainly won’t change. In fact, if recent history is any guide, the former president and his allies would simply put the cost of the tax cuts on the national credit card, without regard for the budget deficits that his party occasionally pretends to care about.

Wouldn’t this make inflation worse? Probably, though Republicans don’t much appear to care about that, either.

But as Trump makes this an explicit part of his 2024 pitch, it’s especially important to appreciate the politics surrounding the larger conversation.

As Republicans began their work on tax reform seven years ago, practically all independent polling pointed in the same direction: Most Americans wanted to see a system in which the wealthy and big corporations paid more. Republicans proceeded to ignore public attitudes and did the opposite.

The political landscape hasn’t changed much. About a year ago, a national Pew Research Center survey found that Americans’ top concern related to tax policy was “the feeling that some corporations and wealthy people do not pay their fair share in taxes.” The report on the findings added, “Majorities also say they would like taxes on these groups to be raised.”

Three months ago, a Navigator Research survey found that 79% of voters favored higher taxes for wealthy individuals and large corporations. As recently as March, a Bloomberg News/Morning Consult poll found that 69% of voters in swing states want to see higher taxes on the wealthy.

Trump, in other words, isn’t just pushing a sequel to his own failed policy, and isn’t just boasting about an idea that would likely make inflation and the deficit considerably worse. He’s also exposing the fraud behind his alleged economic populism while touting tax breaks that most Americans oppose.

President Joe Biden isn’t winning any popularity contests, but when it comes to tax policy, there can be no doubt that the Democratic incumbent is on the right side of public opinion.

This article was originally published on MSNBC.com