Donald Trump Pledges to ‘Unleash America’s Prosperity’ to Improve Economy
In a speech frequently interrupted Monday by Hillary Clinton supporters, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump pledged to “unleash American prosperity” to fix the nation’s failed economy.
“Today we begin a great national conversation about economic renewal for America—it’s a conversation about how to Make America Great Again for everyone, and especially those who have the very least,” he said. “The other party has reached backwards into the past to choose a nominee from yesterday—who offers only the rhetoric of yesterday, and the policies of yesterday. We are going to look boldly into the future, and with new leadership—and new solutions—we will get new results.”
Trump’s economic vision, he said, will unleash the power and productivity of U.S. business and entrepreneurship, bringing prosperity, creating jobs and improving the lives of working families. It focused on four “pillars” of reform that will lead to a stronger economy:
Tax Reform
- Benefit working families while ensuring the wealthy pay their fair share.
- Dramatically reduce taxes for everyone and streamline deductions, presenting the biggest tax reform since Reagan.
- Exclude childcare expenses from taxation.
- Limit taxation of business income to 15% for every business, from freelancers to the Fortune 500.
- Make our corporate tax globally competitive and the United States the most attractive place to invest in the world.
- End the death tax.
Trade Reform
- Renegotiating NAFTA (or walk away if we have to).
- Stopping the TPP.
- Bringing trade relief cases to the World Trade Organization.
- Labeling China a currency manipulator.
- Applying tariffs and duties to countries that cheat.
- Directing the Commerce Department to use all legal tools to respond to trade violations.
- Entering into no trade deal unless it increases our economic growth and strengthens our manufacturing base.
Regulatory Reform
- Issue an executive order to impose a regulatory moratorium on new agency regulations.
- Require each federal agency to prepare a list of all of the regulations they impose on American business, and rank them from most critical to health and safety to least critical. Least critical regulations will receive priority consideration for repeal.
- Remove bureaucrats and replace them with experts who know how to create jobs.
- Repeal and replace Obamacare (will be outlined in-depth in a future speech).
- Initiate targeted review for regulations that inhibit hiring. These include:
- The Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean Power Plan, which forces investment in renewable energy at the expense of coal and natural gas, raising electricity rates.
- The EPA’s Waters of the United States rule, which gives the EPA the ability to regulate the smallest streams on private land, limiting land use.
- The Department of Interior’s moratorium on coal mining permits, which put tens of thousands of coal miners out of work.
Energy Reform
- Rescind all the job-destroying Obama executive actions including the Climate Action Plan and the Waters of the U.S. rule.
- Save the coal industry and other industries threatened by Hillary Clinton’s extremist agenda.
- Ask Trans Canada to renew its permit application for the Keystone Pipeline.
- Make land in the Outer Continental Shelf available to produce oil and natural gas.
- Cancel the Paris Climate Agreement (limit global warming to 2 degrees Celsius) and stop all payments of U.S. tax dollars to U.N. global warming programs.
- Lift restrictions on American energy, which will increase GDP annually by $100 billion, create 500,000 new jobs and increase wages by over $30 billion over the next 7 years.
“In contrast, Hillary Clinton wants to defend those already benefiting from the status quo by raising taxes by over $1 trillion, increasing the size of our already bloated government and adding more burdensome regulations,” the Trump campaign said in a statement following the speech. “Clinton’s plans will continue to keep a boot on the neck of our economy.”
Click here to read the transcript of the entire speech.
The GOP nominee’s speech quickly picked up support from a key member of Congress. U.S. Sen. David Perdue (R-Ga.), who serves on the Senate Budget Committee and who has an extensive background in business, praised the proposal.
“Despite what you’ve heard on his legacy tour, President Obama’s economic policies have failed the very people he claims to champion: the hard working middle class women and men in America,” he said. “Millions of Georgians and Americans are still struggling to make it from payday to payday. This is unacceptable, but not unexpected when we have someone in the White House who had never run a real business before.
“If Americans want different results from Washington, then we must send a different kind of person to the White House. Today, we heard a bold vision from Donald Trump—an outsider and businessman—who is listening to the American people. He understands what it means to take risks and deliver results through lower taxes, less regulation, and solving our debt crisis.
“We know Hillary Clinton will go further with the same failed economic policies that haven’t worked for years. Clinton wants higher taxes, more spending, and she will continue to kill the coal industry. In order to reinvigorate our economy, we must reduce redundant programs, roll back Washington’s regulatory regime and unlock our nation’s full energy potential.
“Mr. Trump understands what it takes to unleash economic growth, and with his leadership we can make America great again.”
