Americans love government programmes but hate taxes. Over the past 40 years, Republicans have catered to these opposed preferences with magical thinking. They cut taxes but not spending, raising deficits in the process — exactly what conservatives promise not to do. Donald Trump is no exception. He promises a cut in corporate tax from 35 per cent to 15 per cent, along with a one-off lower tax rate to induce US companies to repatriate more than $2tn in profits held overseas. The top individual tax rate would also be cut from nearly 40 per cent to 33 per cent.
美國人喜歡政府計劃，但是討厭稅收。過去40年里，共和黨人以奇思妙想迎合民眾這兩種自相矛盾的好惡。他們削減稅收，但不削減支出，結果就是增加了赤字——這恰恰是保守派承諾不會做的事情。唐納德?特朗普(Donald Trump)也不例外。他承諾把公司稅稅率從35%降至15%，同時一次性調低稅率，以吸引美國公司把在海外的逾2萬億美元利潤匯回國內。個人所得稅最高一檔的稅率也將由接近40%降至33%。