Gerard Baker, The London Financial Times. This will add hundreds of billions of dollars to the budget cost of his plan. You might think that he would admit that this increases the cost of his tax cut, and perhaps he would offer to scale back those future tax cuts. I am not making this up. I'm a little worried about a man who tends to stretch the truth in order to get ahead politically.
Payroll taxes are a far greater burden on the poor than on the rich.
How sad it would be if we cut income taxes, then raised payroll taxes to keep the elderly going. Sure, they may save some thousands of dollars a year in the short run. But they have so much at risk in a policy that calculatedly underestimates the cost of the tax cuts and endangers the hard-won federal budget surpluses that has opened the way to prosperity. But it turns out he may be substituting cunning for brilliance. He's rattled opponents with a ridiculously hugh tax cut that puts the hand-out caboose before the budget engine, mostly helps those who need it least, risks a return to deficit spending, and jeopardizes a number of popular domestic programs.