When Donald Trump Talks Higher Taxes, Does GOP Listen?

Wall Street Journal ^ | September 7, 2015 | DANTE CHINNI

[MeshugeMikey]

Donald Trump doesn’t sound like most Republican candidates—and not just because he uses unusually pointed language. It’s also due to his policies. One prominent example: He’s talked about raising taxes on some wealthy Americans and corporations.

The idea of raising taxes is anathema to most GOP politicians. Many sign a pledge promising not to increase them.

How can Mr. Trump lead the Republican presidential field while calling for higher taxes? A look at poll data suggests that a constituency exists for raising taxes on the wealthy—even within the Republican Party.

[kcvl]

Exactly!

Over the past decade, hedge funds owned by John Paulson, David Einhorn, Daniel Loeb, and many more have created shell companies with headquarters in corporate tax havens like the Cayman Islands or Bermuda, which typically have few or no employees and cost next to nothing to operate. These shell companies are allegedly reinsurers, or insurance companies for insurance companies, taking in premiums and backstopping large catastrophic events. When not paying out claims, reinsurers invest their reserves. But in this case, the lion’s share of the reinsurers’ capital comes not from insurance company premiums, but from the hedge funds that created them.

To use one example, in 2012, Paulson & Co. transferred $450 million into its reinsurer, Pacre Ltd., which has no employees. Almost all of Pacre’s assets were invested back into Paulson’s hedge fund. So it’s like a perfect circle: The money goes from the hedge fund to the reinsurer, and back into the hedge fund. This allows John Paulson and his top executives to defer taxation until the investment gets sold. At that point, they pay taxes only on capital gains rather than on income.

http://prospect.org/article/irs-will-close-tax-loophole-unless-wall-street-gets-its-way

[RginTN]

Trump is not a Constitutional Conservative.

[GOPJ]

To use one example, in 2012, Paulson & Co. transferred $450 million into its reinsurer, Pacre Ltd., which has no employees. Almost all of Pacre’s assets were invested back into Paulson’s hedge fund. So it’s like a perfect circle: The money goes from the hedge fund to the reinsurer, and back into the hedge fund. This allows John Paulson and his top executives to defer taxation until the investment gets sold. At that point, they pay taxes only on capital gains rather than on income.

Bingo!

I'm comfortable with Trump talking about 'taxing the rich' because he understands what's going down... just like you do kcvl... Paulson's a good example of the 'rich' we need to tax.

[kcvl]

Donald Trump is a lot smarter than many people give him credit for!

He knows like many of us that everyday working people are getting screwed by Wall Street elites with political connections.

Everyone needs to play by the same rules/laws, etc. and no one should get a break because of political affiliation or how much they donate to a political campaign!

[Cobra64]

Yup. The problem is, too many people are too bloody lazy to read his book that discusses his policies.

[reaganaut]

I prefer the uber rich pay less taxes, more money to put into the economy (and yes we do do that).

[dead]

How can Mr. Trump lead the Republican presidential field while calling for higher taxes?

Because many former conservatives are googly-eyed smitten by his ability to bark snappy insults at deserving targets and that's enough, in their eyes, to support him for president.

I'm still holding out for a conservative.

[Darroll]

Trump will figure it out.

[familyop]

Even worse, Trump wants to wipe out the last of personal savings by focusing on huge taxes against the private assets of individuals and families. He’s a New York style commie, and he’s spoken softly in favor of every issue for the radical socialists of the left before loudly blowharding sound bites for populism—things he does not intend to do.

[Georgia Girl 2]

Steve Forbes and Art Laffer are working with Trump on his tax and economic white paper so I wouldn’t be too worried about it.

[MeshugeMikey]

I have an inate..6th sense sort of distrust ot Trump

I cant quite put my finger on precisely what it is that I find “puzzling” but Im pretty sure that will be clarified before long.

[MeshugeMikey]

HIS EMPHASIS....on making the deal......aka wheeling and dealng is starting to make sense now

NO I havent been SOLD..on the Donnie but the pieces may just be coming together.

hes working a DEAL.... with the American “public” a lil less that forthright....but a deal nonetheless.

He wins....we lose.?

[MeshugeMikey]

I expect to see new GOT MILK Ads starring.... the donald.... soon

MAYBE he looks at this THE DONALD SHOW as ROLE PLAYING?? ....yea like on his TV show

reality TV....isnt reality POLITICS ..

[MeshugeMikey]

Hey i TOO am ALL for the IRS.....

sure I am.!!!

Mr Modified Mullet is playing a lot of people...refuse to be one

[MeshugeMikey]

I dint call CHinnie a moron but thanks for sharing

Oh heres another possible reason to question the VIABILITY of The Donnie as a POTUS candidate

http://www.breitbart.com/video/2015/09/05/trump-us-should-help-as-much-as-possible-with-refugee-crisis-possibly-let-some-in/

wel....... he may.... have EVOLVED his POV on this since the article was published....at the behest of his advisors

[MeshugeMikey]

he wants to let the SYRIAN REFUGEES to have access to THE USA.

vetted by.....maybe barack obama??? he’ll need a job in a few months HEY WHY not a little BIFARTISANSHIP

astonishing marketing campaign this slugs engaged in

[County Agent Hank Kimball]

"Chinni is self-retarded to think otherwise"

"Self-retarded?"

Never heard that phrase. Not giving you a hard time, just wondering what it means. How is being "self-retarded" different from being "retarded?"

I've never heard that reflexive formulation.

Hank

[Hostage]

People that are born retarded deserve our sympathy.

People that make themselves retarded, ‘self-retarded’ deserve no such sympathy.

[familyop]

"hes working a DEAL.... with the American “public” a lil less that forthright....but a deal nonetheless."

I think you're on to something there. Thanks!

"He wins....we lose.?"

Here's something that I read from several news sites over the past day or so. In a recent interview with Hannity, Trump was asked about cabinet picks, were he to be elected. He answered with the names of Jack Welch, Warren Buffet and someone else, if I remember correctly. Jack Welch's bio information is available around the Net (Wikipedia, etc.).

With that in mind along with Trump's desire to heavily tax the assets of individuals (savings, etc.) while doing away with the corporate income tax, it looks bad, in my opinion. At least some of the government-connected global corporates treat government regulators (even in local governments) as watchdogs against any potential domestic competition (e.g., regulations, taxes and fees against attempts to start small manufacturing shops on American soil) and guardians of American-owned production happening on foreign soil.

So what's the deal? We might find out.

My rant on some related possibilities follows.

We should probably prepare ourselves for a flight and sell-off of real personal assets and resulting economic collapse, just in case. If no one's buying, there's no economy. In more frankness than we're accustomed to reading, that's what happened in the 1930s. Global moguls can't rule the world in a vacuum, and new deals only work in a land willing to have a large manufacturing base worked by a free people on their own soil.

A few decades back, the people of Czechoslovakia and Poland shut down the last of motivations to work for Russia and did what was healthy and best for themselves (nonpolitical politics). Tyrant bureaucrats forget so quickly, if they ever paid attention at all.

Another thing that willing people among us might do, is to participate in open source equipment designs and preparations for a regime of much more distributed production (as a not-for-profit hobby for now). With societal harmony so disturbed for the time being and the economy in shambles soon, it's going to happen. As for designs on slavery in the land of the free, people who are robbed don't forget so soon.

[gleeaikin]

I think what angered a lot of people was when the billionaire owner of Berkshire Hathaway pointed out that his secretary pays a higher rate of taxes than he does because of low capital gains rates. Also, it is well known that some big companies pay NO taxes. From 1940 and most of the next 25 years the top rates were over 90%. See the link below for an excellent graph on the top rates history in the US. Perhaps someone can actually post it here, that is beyond my computer skills.

http://www.businessinsider.com/history-of-tax-rates