William Quincy Belle: John Green: Understanding Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton's Tax Plans

Donald Trump vs Hillary Clinton: it all comes down to a campaign slogan or an Internet meme. But do any of us truly understand what each candidate is proposing? This election isn't about the issues; it's about character assassination and muckraking. Unfortunately, it's the issues which will haunt us long after the lights are turned out and the confetti is swept up. Rah, rah, sis boom bah. As each of us wildly chant going into the polling booth, I would contend that none of us has a firm grasp of what tomorrow will bring. Good luck. We'll need it.

Published on Oct 11, 2016 by vlogbrothers
YouTube: Understanding Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton's Tax Plans
In which John Green compares the tax proposals of Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, and looks at what the tax system and budget would look like for different families. There's also a brief introduction to federal income tax here in the United States, and some discussion of the candidates' budget proposals.

Campaign slogans? Internet memes? Just one man's opinion explaining his partisanship? John Greene provides his sources. He's stating an opinion, but an opinion based on facts. This is what we need: a discussion about the issue, not about the candidate themselves.

The Tax Policy Center's excellent and detailed analysis of Democrat Hillary Clinton's tax plan:
http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/publications/updated-analysis-hillary-clintons-tax-proposals

The Tax Policy Center's analysis of Republican Donald Trump's tax plan:
http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/publications/analysis-donald-trumps-revised-tax-plan

Much of the information in this video came from the Tax Foundation's analysis of Clinton's tax proposals:
http://taxfoundation.org/sites/default/files/docs/TaxFoundation-FF496.pdf

And of Trump's:
http://taxfoundation.org/article/details-and-analysis-donald-trump-tax-reform-plan-september-2016

Lily Batchelder's paper explaining why Trump's tax plan would result in tax increases for 7.8 million households:
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2842802

and a politifact story on the same topic:
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2016/sep/27/hillary-clinton/hillary-clinton-correctly-cites-outside-analyses-t/

Donald Trump's tax plan would boost the debt much more than Clinton's, and would put U.S. debt held by the public over 100% of GDP in the next decade according to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget:
http://crfb.org/papers/promises-and-price-tags-preliminary-update

The CRFB explains Trump's budget cut proposals here:
http://crfb.org/blogs/explaining-donald-trumps-penny-plan-non-defense-spending

And his plan for increased defense spending here:
http://crfb.org/blogs/how-much-would-trumps-new-defense-plan-cost

Chart of our publicly held debt to GDP ratio came from here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_debt_of_the_United_States

The Tax Policy Center has an excellent chart explaining effective tax rates by income size that you'll enjoy if you're into this kind of stuff:
http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/statistics/effective-tax-rate-size-income

Final Word
Skip the character assassinations. Skip the sexual history. Everybody gets a pass; everybody gets a clean slate.

Let's talk about the issues, specifically let's talk about taxes: Clinton's plan vs Trump's plan. Over the next 10 years:

Clinton = add two hundred billion to the national debt

Trump = add two to seven trillion dollars to the national debt

Note: billion vs trillion

Note: Trump's plan favors the wealthy.

Skip the candidates and talk about the issues. November 8: your future is at stake.

References

Wikipedia: John Green (author)
John Michael Green (born August 24, 1977) is an American writer of young adult fiction and a YouTube vlogger and educator. He won the 2006 Printz Award for his debut novel, Looking for Alaska, and reached number one on a New York Times Best Seller list with The Fault in Our Stars in January 2012.

Wikipedia: VlogBrothers
VlogBrothers is a video blog style channel on YouTube. The Internet-based show is created and hosted by brothers, John Green and Hank Green. The first incarnation of the brothers' online broadcasting was the "Brotherhood 2.0" project, preceding the establishment of the pair's regular vlogging activity through the VlogBrothers channel.

Wikipedia: Hank Green
William Henry "Hank" Green ll (born 5 May 1980) is an American entrepreneur, musician, and vlogger. He is best known for his YouTube channel Vlogbrothers where he regularly uploads videos along with his brother, John Green. He is also the creator of the online environmental technology blog EcoGeek, and the developer of Subbable. He is involved with several other channels on YouTube, including Crash Course, SciShow, The Lizzie Bennet Diaries,The Brain Scoop, and Sexplanations.

YouTube channel: vlogbrothers

Twitter: John Green @johngreen
I write books, including Looking for Alaska and The Fault in Our Stars. (Books are like tweets, except longer.) I also make videos with my brother.

web site: John Green Books

web site: Hank Green Internet Guy