Two very different paths on taxes: Clinton vs. Trump

If you'd like to take a break from the made-for-TV thrills of the Democratic convention, TPC has prepared a series of bite-sized explanations of Hillary Clinton's tax proposals. We'll be running them daily while the Democratic Party is gathering in Philadelphia. Last week, while the Republicans were in Cleveland, we published four posts on Donald Trump's tax plan.

Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump have proposed dramatically different tax plans. Clinton wants to raise taxes on high-income households and businesses to boost revenue and pay for new social initiatives. Trump wants to slash tax rates on both individuals and businesses. Add it up and over the next decade the two plans are more than $12 trillion dollars apart: The Tax Policy Center (TPC) estimates Clinton’s tax proposals would shave $1.2 trillion off the nation’s debt over the next 10 years while Trump’s would add $11.2 trillion.

TPC estimates include only changes in revenue and interest payments (savings for Clinton and costs for Trump). However, the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget has examined how the candidates tax plans interact with their spending proposals. It found Clinton’s spending plans roughly match her tax increases (meaning she’d maintain projected deficits). By contrast, Trump has offered no major spending reductions to offset his unprecedented tax cuts and has even called for more defense spending (bottom line: even larger deficits).

Clinton’s campaign has repeatedly promised an additional tax cut for low- and middle-income households and Trump has flirted with changing his plan. Still, barring major alterations to these plans, voters will choose between radically different paths on tax policy in November.