Trump. Bait and switch?

I have been entertained by Mr. Trump’s pitch. He brags that he is so rich that he is immune to special interest groups as he doesn’t need their money.

He also bragged that he makes $400 million a year, and said that his campaign is self-funded. According to reports he has been quietly taking donations from the public in spite of being “100% self-funded.”. The public can give a maximum of $2,700 per election.

As he did not donate money to his campaign but loaned it to his PAC that he controls, I suspect he’ll repay the reported ~$2 million loan he made to his committee as the money rolls in. Once repaid, the public will pay his way, (as is typical) and running for president will be substantially paid for by the American public. The American public is still voluntarily chained to the oars.

I was very disappointed with these self funding statements, as being offered money doesn’t mean being corrupted. Being corrupted is the quiet, unwritten understanding that very high paid consulting and other jobs will be waiting when the politician has built up his federal pension to a very nice level. Some get greedy and want to make millions faster than with a very nice congressional salary.

Every year “served” is worth ~$5,000 a year more in annual federal pension income. No wonder they won’t quit until a better offer comes along.

It’s obvious that the strategy won’t work on Trump, but if you are entering government service past 60 (he’s 69) you’re also immune. Why?

Because when you leave office there is a good chance it will be on your back with a sheet over your head and a tag on your toe. So consulting and board jobs won’t matter and you are immune.

So claiming to be super rich and taking small donations, in my opinion, is bait and switch. Now I think that he’s no better than the other wannabes.

Another sad episode of American politics.

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Editor’s note, 9/29/2015.

Mr. Trump announced his tax plan that he will promote if elected president. He leads by offering the vast majority, tax cuts or zero taxes. Why? It’s called pandering for votes.

You cannot say elect me and I’ll raise your taxes, so politicians always say the opposite. Mr. Trump is a generic politician; a wealthy one but, based on his plans, generic.

Other than the most prominent other items involving lowering taxes on the highest income earners to 25% and eliminating some of the their deduction offsets little else is ground breaking.

While pretending to advocate soaking the rich he fails to mention that the highest income earners have teams of CPAs who will find way to reallocate funds, so their clients pay less in income taxes not more.

As Mr. Trump earns hundreds of millions of dollars a year, Mr. Trump will be one of the main beneficiaries of the 25% maximum tax rate proposal.

He also wants to eliminate death taxes completely. Why? Mr. Trump is sixty-nine so he is obviously thinking about his dynasty and how to transfer his companies to his children without taxes. Another plus for Mr. Trump.

He wants to lower corporate taxes to a 15% level. At least that’s one good idea; that’s also very beneficial to Mr. Trump’s business empire.

When I ran for office, I proposed a zero tax on federal corporate profits as it would drive foreign corporations to flood the US with money, build factories here rather than in China and hire millions of workers. As there would be a shortage or workers, pay would increase and the anti-immigrant rhetoric would vanish, as everyone who wanted to work would have a well paid job.

So when you hear and read about what Mr. Trump wants to do, try to separate the truth from any self-serving noise.

Mr. Trump makes plenty of noise.