Donald Trump wants to raise taxes on the "very wealthy" and reduce the number of "unfair deductions" so that the middle class and corporations pay less in federal taxes, he said in an interview with 60 Minutes that aired Sunday evening.
The Republican presidential candidate, who is leading in early polls, plans to release his tax proposal at a news conference this morning in New York, but he shared some details during the interview on the CBS News program.
He has yet to explain which taxes he would increase or how the United States would afford major cuts.
Trump said he wants to provide "a substantial reduction for the middle-income people" because they are "being absolutely decimated," and he said he wants to reduce corporate income taxes to encourage companies to grow and create jobs. He said those in the lowest income brackets, who already pay little to no taxes, would be exempt from paying taxes. Meanwhile, he said, he would raise taxes on "some very wealthy" people and eliminate or change "unfair deductions" that favor the highest-earning people.
Trump has been especially critical in recent weeks of those on Wall Street who pay little or no taxes.
"Overall, it's going to be a tremendous incentive to grow the economy, and we're going to take in the same or more money," Trump said in the interview. "And I think we're going to have something that's going to be spectacular."
Scott Pelley, the 60 Minutes anchor who conducted the interview, pushed Trump on the particulars of his tax plan with little success.
When pressed on which taxpayers could expect to pay less in taxes if he is elected, Trump responded: "I will say this: There will be a large segment of our country that will have a zero rate, a zero rate. And that's something I haven't told anybody."
Pelley then pointed out that the federal debt is $19 trillion and asked how the nation could afford those sorts of tax cuts. Trump said the numbers will work out as long as "the economy grows the way it should grow, if I bring jobs back from China, from Japan, from Mexico, from so many countries."
Trump said the United States also must heavily tax imports, especially those from Mexico and Japan. He said the North American Free Trade Agreement has been "a disaster" and should be renegotiated. He also suggested that the United States could break the agreement because "every agreement has a defraud clause" and is "being defrauded by all these countries."
A Section on 09/28/2015