Tardiness, Incompetence, Plagiarism, Lies, and Ineffectiveness. All in One Trumpian Plan!
On This Day In 2017
Trump liked to brag how "easy" it would be to run the country. Solve for world peace? No problem! Devise a brilliant tax system? Coming right up!
As part of his brilliant tax system, he sought to reverse Obama’s signature tax regulations. So he ordered his Treasury Department to conduct a review of any new laws that put an “undue financial burden on taxpayers.” (Never mind that Obama’s rules had mostly targeted corporate entities, including closing a loophole that let companies avoid taxes by shifting profits offshore.)
It was a bad idea, badly executed. In a reflection of the general incompetence that marked the Trump Administration, Treasury missed the date for coming up with a plan. It wasn’t until two weeks after the deadline that, OTDI 2017, the Department released its recommendations.
But wait, there’s more! The report—which marked Trump’s big effort to put his unique stamp on the American economy -- was lifted, almost entirely, from a report that had been released months prior by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Miss the deadline, then finally give up and just submit somebody else's paper?
Trump then lied that he had passed “the biggest tax cut in the history of our country.” The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget ranked Trump’s cut as only the eighth largest since 1918. And, as The Intercept reported, the biggest beneficiaries of the 2017 changes were “business owners, financiers, and wealthy individuals.”
A high-schooler wouldn’t have been allowed to get away with any of this.
Separately: The genius tax plan did little to actually, you know, improve the economy. But that's a matter for different OTDIs.
Dive Deeper
The Intercept reported on the lobbyist connection
The Wall Street Journal had a similar take
CNN pointed out the relative puniness
Pic via OpenArt.ai (It includes taking credit for things he didn’t do, lying about size, etc…) We know it’s AI b/c apparently this is how cats really feel about Trump