TRUMP IS MAKING BERNIE'S POINT FOR HIM

What was it that Bernie Sanders said in the Las Vegas debate last week?

We are living in many ways in a socialist society right now. The problem is, as Dr. Martin Luther King reminded us, we have socialism for the very rich, rugged individualism for the poor.

... When Donald Trump gets $800 million in tax breaks and subsidies to build luxury condominiums, that's socialism for the rich.

... When Walmart -- we have to subsidize Walmart's workers who are on Medicaid and food stamps because the wealthiest family in America pays starvation wages, that's socialism for the rich.

(APPLAUSE)

I believe in democratic socialism for working people, not billionaires, health care for all, educational opportunities for all.

Maybe you don't agree with this. Maybe you agree with it but think it's a message that will turn off moderate voters.

What's undeniable is that President Trump is determined to prove Sanders's point.

Speaking at the Conservative Political Action Conference on Friday, acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney told the crowd that Trump wants to slash the corporate tax rate again, down to 20%.... “We need to do the second part of the tax bill—we really do, Tax Cuts 2.0,” Mulvaney said when asked what Trump’s second-term priorities would entail. “He never liked the fact the corporate tax is 21%—he always wanted it to be 20. ‘Mick, 20 is a better number than 21,’” Mulvaney added, doing an impression of the president.

... In addition, Mulvaney said that a proposal to adjust capital gains taxes for inflation, which would almost exclusively benefit the super rich, is on the table. Currently, when an asset like a stock or real estate is sold, the amount of tax paid on the appreciation is tied to inflation, so at present corporate stock with dividends held for 10 years would be subject to an effective tax rate of roughly 24.3%. Under the proposed plan, the same holding would be subject to a rate of just 21.4%. According to a 2018 estimate by the Penn Wharton Budget model, the top 1% would receive a whopping 86% of the benefit.

... the president is currently trying to kick millions of people off of food stamps. He’s also recently confirmed that Medicare would likely be on the chopping block in a second term and proposed taking heat from the poor to help fund the coronavirus response.

That's for the second term. Trump is also weighing immediate tax cuts of an unspecified nature, according to The Washington Post, because coronavirus has the stock market dropping and we can't allow that to happen, ever.

Many people say that the message of Bernie Sanders is overly simplistic. But maybe it's simplistic because pro-plutocrat policies are simplistic, especially when Republicans are in power.