It is dreadful in many respects, horrible in others. No chance of passing. Trump's entire campaign from the Get-go has been 'Reagan on Steroids' right down to the slogan. But Reagan* came into office in a recession; Trump is coming in near full employment, i.e., all the robots are working. The '81 Reagan cuts had to be scaled back. But the loss of income tax brackets we never recovered from. We desperately need more upper brackets; not fewer. The loss of brackets, compounded over time, has played a significant role in accelerating the natural tendency of wealth distributions to develop skew. Trumps plan has some of the same defects as Reagan's, but coming at the wrong point in the business cycle, its closer to the payday loan business model than anything I learned in school. It's a horrible, horrible plan. Thank god it won't pass! Of course if the goal is to goose the market, make the wealthy wealthier, the poor poorer, live for today; screw tomorrow, it's a marvelous plan. Is Art Laffer hiding in a White House closet? (The selfish in me wants this thing to pass intact. I'd make out like a bandit, and I'll be dead by the time the consequences arrive.)
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*Reagan's major accomplishment (in which he collaborated with Greenspan and for which his administration should be lauded) was putting Social Security back on a sound basis. Since then, Congress, by systematically ignoring the actuaries recommendations, has allowed the soundness of S.S. to deteriorate. It's been intentional, not accidental. On the downside, Reagan's 'tax revolution' which actually raised the rate on the lowest bracket, was responsible, in no small measure, for exacerbating the wealth distribution problem. The present unhealthy distribution is the result of compounding the effect of bracket collapse over many years. After the initial round of cuts in 1981, which had to be partially undone, there was so little difference between the bottom and top marginal rates that the nation was approaching a flat tax.
