The Washington Post - 22.08.2019

A16 EZ RE THE WASHINGTON POST.THURSDAY, AUGUST 22 , 2019

core element of his appeal to

blue-collar workers in the

Upper Midwest who helped

deliver his victory. Long

reported that “Trump’s tax cuts

helped boost manufacturing in

2018 (blue-collar job growth hit

the fastest pace since the early

1980s), but the president’s

tariffs have since taken a toll,

sending manufacturing into a

‘technical recession’ in 2019.”

8. Boosting economic
   growth. Trump campaigned on
   a promise to goose economic
   growth as high as 5 or 6
   percent. “We’re bringing it from
   1 percent up to 4 percent. And I
   actually think we can go higher
   than 4 percent. I think you can
   go to 5 percent or 6 percent,”
   Trump said in October 2016.
   After approaching 3 percent
   last year thanks in part to
   stimulus provided by the tax
   cut and higher federal
   spending, growth has slowed
   this year and is now on track to
   settle in at around 2 percent,
   per the Fed. And nearly three in
   four business economists now
   say they expect Trump’s policies
   will tip the U.S. economy into a
   recession by the end of 2021.
   [email protected]

goods they ship to the U.S.

Trump came the closest to an

acknowledgment that domestic

consumers are in fact on the

hook when he last week

postponed some import duties

set to hit next month until mid-

December, a move he said was

aimed at shielding Christmas

shoppers. Multiple studies,

however, confirm that American

businesses and consumers are

already shouldering the vast

majority of the tariffs.

JPMorgan Chase economists

now estimate Trump’s existing

tariffs are costing the average

American household $600 a

year, a sum that will rise to

$1,000 if he follows through

with the next round of levies.

6. Lowering the trade
   deficit. The president’s
   animating drive in his trade
   offensive has been reducing
   America’s trade deficits with its
   key trading partners. As my
   colleague Heather Long noted
   Tuesday, the U.S. trade deficit
   has actually grown during
   Trump’s presidency to
   $633 billion.


7. Reviving manufacturing.
   Trump also pledged to usher in
   a manufacturing renaissance, a

has amounted to a deregulatory

bonanza for Wall Street,

including most recently a

rewrite of the “Volcker rule”

that megabanks have been

agitating for since the

imposition of the post-crisis

rules on the industry. The entire

drive has raised alarms among

former Federal Reserve

officials, who have voiced

concerns that the changes could

exacerbate the next downturn.

4. Eliminating the debt.
   Trump as a candidate promised
   to eliminate the federal debt
   within eight years. Instead, he’s
   on track to leave it 50 percent
   higher. The deficit is swelling to
   over $1 trillion annually, partly
   because of diminished revenue
   as a result of Trump’s
   $1.5 trillion tax cut (which the
   administration pledged would
   pay for itself, though it isn’t)
   and higher federal spending.


5. Protecting consumers
   amid the trade war. The
   president has insisted
   throughout his trade war with
   China that American
   consumers have been held
   harmless while Chinese
   exporters bear the burden of
   tariffs he’s imposed on the

package. Trump campaigned on

a promise to pursue a major

infrastructure package, an

initiative that moved to the back

burner as soon as he took office.

But he has returned to the issue

repeatedly, vowing to

implement “the biggest and

boldest infrastructure

investment in American

history,” and pledging at least a

half-dozen times to make the

matter a top priority. The

project has gone nowhere. And

the administration’s attempts to

build momentum for it by

declaring an “Infrastructure

Week” have become Washington

shorthand for its hapless efforts

to stay on message amid

nonstop controversies.

3. Breaking up the big
   banks. The president also
   campaigned on a pledge to
   break up the big banks by
   restoring the Glass-Steagall
   Act’s firewall between
   commercial and investment
   banking. Back in 2016, he said
   he was “not going to let Wall
   Street get away with murder.
   Wall Street has caused
   tremendous problems for us.”
   But his handpicked
   regulators have pursued what

White House watchers. The

president frequently undercuts

staff members denying reports

that a move is imminent or

being actively considered. More

importantly, the episode

conforms to a pattern of Trump

making promises about his

economic program that he later

abandons or that fail to bear

fruit.

Here’s a look at some of those

broken promises:

1. The 2018 middle-class tax
   cut. Most similarly, Trump
   spent the weeks leading up to
   the 2018 midterms talking up a
   10 percent tax cut for the middle
   class that he said congressional
   Republicans would unveil after
   the election. “It’s going to be put
   in next week, 10 percent tax
   cut,” Trump told a Houston
   crowd at an Oct. 22 rally. The
   president claimed he’d been
   working on the plan for months
   with then-House Ways and
   Means Committee Chairman
   Kevin Brady (R-Tex.), though
   Brady at the time directed
   questions about it back to the
   White House. The effort
   unraveled before a proposal was
   unveiled.


2. A major infrastructure

If you’re feel like
you’re suffering
from some
disorienting deja
vu trying to
follow the Trump
administration’s
latest position on
a payroll tax cut, it isn’t just the
August heat.
President Trump on
Wednesday reversed himself
from a day earlier by declaring
he is no longer considering the
move. That about-face came
after the president on Tuesday
afternoon upended a day’s
worth of denials from senior
White House aides that such a
plan was under consideration,
telling reporters he was in fact
mulling a temporary cut to keep
some extra money in Americans’
pockets.
“I’m not looking at a tax cut
now,” Trump said Wednesday.
“We don’t need it. We have a
strong economy.” On Tuesday, he
said the “payroll tax is
something that we think about,
and a lot of people would like to
see that.”
The president’s two-day
round trip on the issue fits a
track record by now familiar to

PowerPost

INTELLIGENCE FOR LEADERS 
 WASHINGTONPOST.COM/POWERPOST

Talk of payroll tax cut calls to mind Trump’s other reversals

The
Finance
202

TORY
NEWMYER

BY DANIELLE

DOUGLAS-GABRIEL

President Trump moved
Wednesday to grant veterans
who are severely disabled auto-
matic federal student loan for-
giveness, rather than requiring
them to fill out paperwork for a
benefit provided by law.
“They have made a sacrifice
that is so great,” Trump said in a
speech to the AMVETS national
convention in Louisville.
“It’s gone forever,” Trump said
of the debt.
Veterans are eligible to have
the government discharge their
federal student loans if the De-
partment of Veterans Affairs
deems them totally and perma-
nently disabled. Few have taken
advantage of the discharge, in
part because it has never been
widely publicized.
The Education Department
announced a partnership with
VA in December 2016 to identify
eligible veterans, who would
then need to sign and return an
application to complete the proc-
ess. Work on the project, howev-
er, did not get underway until
April 2018. The Education De-
partment did not immediately
respond to requests for comment
on the delay.
Still, the effort has fallen short

of its potential. A Freedom of

Information Act request made by

the advocacy group Veterans

Education Success found that

the Education Department con-

tacted more than 42,000 dis-

abled veterans, 25,000 of whom

were in default on their student

loans. Yet barely 8,500 had

signed and returned the applica-

tion for a discharge as of May

2018.

To date, the partnership be-

tween the Education Depart-

ment and VA has resulted in the

federal government providing

more than $650 million in stu-

dent loan relief to more than

22,000 eligible veterans.

The nonprofit Student Bor-

rowers Protection Center said

many veterans may have been

reluctant because of the per-

ceived tax implications of loan

forgiveness. Until recently, the

federal government treated

money forgiven through a dis-

ability discharge as taxable in-

come. The tax overhaul signed

into law last year put an end to

the government counting as tax-

able income student debt that is

forgiven because of death or

disability.

When the federal tax burden

was lifted, consumer advocates

and state attorneys general

urged Education Secretary Betsy

DeVos to automatically cancel

the debts amassed by disabled

veterans. The department said

potential state and local tax lia-

bilities tied to forgiveness re-

mained a concern.

On Wednesday, the Education

Department noted that veterans

can opt out of the automatic

discharge in the event they are

worried about the state tax im-

plications.

“Supporting and caring for

those who have sacrificed much

in service to our country is a

priority for President Trump and

the entire Administration,” De-

Vos said in a statement Wednes-

day. “We will continue to priori-

tize the needs of our nation’s

veterans and provide them the

help and support they have

earned and deserve.”

[email protected]

Trump to automatically forgive student debt for permanently disabled vets

SCOTT OLSON/GETTY IMAGES

Guests at the AMVETS convention in Louisville listen to President Trump on Wednesday, when he lauded veterans for their sacrifice and

said his administration would now automatically cancel student debt for the totally and permanently disabled: “It’s gone forever.”

Program had required

signed application, but

many weren’t taking part

FREE Consultation | FREE Design | FREE Estimates

Complete Kitchen Remodeling

Quality

You Can

Afford

Superior Service | Years of Experience

202-897-3095 DC | 703-382-8411 VA | 301-892-6015 MD

MHIC #125450 | DC #67004413 | VA #2705 108835A | WVA #

Financing

As Low As

$

1

(^49)
Per Month
Free $^5
0
Gift Card
*When You Complete
An In-home Design
Appointment
limited time offers
other restrictions may apply
Buy Now
and
Save
$ 2000
MHIC #125450 • VA #2705 108835
202-869-1044 DC
703-468-4418 VA
301-841-8308 MD
Lifetime Warranty Locally Owned & Operated
SunSuites Sunroom
Summer Special
$
2,500 OFF
Wiiththhis cooupoon. NoNt vvalid withhothher ooff erss orpprior salees.
Couupon goodoupon initiaalpreesentnatioon onnly.
Limmited timeeoff ffer. PPricee incluudess experpt installlatioon.
SunSuites Sunrooms
Summer
Screen Room
Special
BUY NOW AND
SAVE
$
1,
Some restrictions apply
Payments
as low as
$
Enjoy the Outdoors All Year!
Home delivery makes good sense. 1-800-753-POST washingtonpost.com/subscribe
SF