#Lyin'Donald and his amazing proposals.

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Donald Trump’s cunning plan
By Buttonwood, May 13, 2016

Sam Clovis, an adviser to Donald Trump, claimed this week that his candidate had a plan including "other factors we are going to propose" that will generate a budget surplus of between $4.5 trillion-7 trillion. That would be remarkable given that the Tax Foundation estimates that his planned tax cuts will reduce revenues by more than $10 trillion or that the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget puts the total cost of his announced plans at $12 trillion. That is because his proposals include big tax cuts (mainly benefiting the wealthy), and the protection of Social Security and Medicare (bar an impossible claim to save $300 billion on drugs spending when Medicare spent $62 billion on drugs last year).

But it is hard to keep up with Mr Trump's proposals. He recently appeared to say that he would raise taxes on the rich; this was clarified as meaning that, in talks with Congress, he would accept a rate somewhat higher than his proposed 25%. The current rate is 39.6%. Mr Clovis seemed to suggest that the surplus would be the result of more rapid economic growth; the CRFB suggests that 10% annual growth would be needed, faster than China and five times the current rate, just to balance the budget. 

So these "other factors" must be pretty amazing stuff. Perhaps this will be akin to the apocryphal "secret plan" of Richard Nixon to end the Vietnam war. Perhaps, like Mr Trump's tax returns, the details will not be released until after the November poll.  

So we can only guess at what his cunning plan might contain. Here are a few speculative suggestions.

• The word America should be trademarked and back royalties charged. Don McLean alone will owe hundreds of billions for "American Pie".
• Take the Social Security trust fund and put it on black at one of Trump's casinos
• Redenominate Treasury bonds in yen, instantly cutting the national debt's nominal value by 99%
• Redefine the word "deficit" as "surplus"
• Since tariffs with China will be so great for the US economy, introduce tariff barriers between individual states, so goods moving from New Jersey to New York will face a levy. Tax revenues will soar
• Given Mr Trump's admiration for Vladimir Putin, subcontract all US defence spending to Russia
• Extend the Mexican wall right the way round the coastline. This will prevent immigrants, and imports from getting in, improving the trade deficit; also, you can charge people $100 to visit the beach
• Offer other countries the right to have Mr Trump as their acting President, two days a week, in a competitive auction.   

The money should flood in. 
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