The Final Numbers Are In: Trump’s Tax Plan Is a Huge Windfall For the Wealthy

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I know this is pretty meaningless, but TPC has released its latest—and presumably final—analyses of the Trump and Clinton tax plans. There’s nothing surprising in them: Trump’s plan features gigantic tax cuts for the wealthy and Clinton’s features big tax increases on the wealthy. For the record, here’s how they pencil out:

TPC estimates that Clinton’s plan would raise $1.4 trillion over ten years and reduce the federal deficit by $1.6 trillion. Trump’s plan would cost $6.2 trillion and increase the deficit by $7.2 billion. Needless to say, that’s just for the tax plans themselves. Clinton’s overall budget proposal would be roughly revenue neutral once you account for her spending proposals. Likewise, Trump’s plan might be slightly less of a deficit buster if he cuts spending somewhere—though he’s ruled out most areas of the budget for spending cuts and hasn’t identified any specific cuts in the few areas left.

Assuming that Trump has no sizeable budget cuts in mind, his plan would increase the national debt from about 90 percent of GDP to 115 percent of GDP by 2026. In other words, it’s fiscally conservative, using the modern definition of the term.

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

If you can, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones—that exists to make a difference, not a profit—with a donation of any amount today. We need more donations than normal to come in from this specific blurb to help close our funding gap before it gets any bigger.

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