Today’s New York Times has an editorial calling out Trump to make some more “deals” with Congressional Democrats that would actually benefit most Americans:
If President Trump continues to reach across the aisle, what other deals might be possible?
www.nytimes.com/...?
In the wake of the Equifax debacle, here's my own modest proposal to help consumers and reimburse them for the hassles these imperious, predatory banks and credit bureaus have caused to virtually every American (and might actually stimulate the economy to the promised 4% consumer-driven growth), as well as provide a meaningful tax cut for the middle class: make the interest on consumer credit and student loans tax deductible for 3 years (like it was for decades), just like the tax break corporations and the super rich get on their elaborate tax avoidance schemes.
Also, how about for the next 3 years make it easier for consumers struggling under unsustainable consumer debt (including student loans and payday loans) to declare bankruptcy without taking such a huge hit, by removing the bankruptcy from their credit report in 3 years instead of 10. Let them get a fresh start (while paying some penalty) just like Trump and businesses do all the time? Since the crash of 2008 the banks and credit card companies have grown even bigger after taxpayers bailed them out, and grew ever more predatory in snaring the poor, working and middle class, whose incomes are just now recovering after a decade, in debt.
This could be paid for by eliminating the home mortgage deduction for second homes, corporate real estate, and any home costing more than $1 million (or some threshold well above the local median housing price). Housing construction would boom as home buying became more affordable for millions. Developers would shift the overbuilding of commercial and luxury real estate and start building homes Americans could afford again.
Also, Impose a 10% surtax on real estate purchases by foreign investors or any corporation hiding the purchaser's identity behind multiple LLCs or other opaque schemes that enable unethical and criminal activities like money laundering. These mystery sales (now accounting for half of all sales in markets like New York) are completely distorting the housing market for Americans to enrich entities who don't need the break at American's'expense.
For good measure add a few percent surtax on bank, hedge fund, and stock trading profits, as these entities have gained ALL of the nation's economic growth in the last decade of the crash. Bank stocks would lose value. Boo hoo. Their present values are built on the wreckage of millions of Americans being wiped out and crushed by Wall Street’s casino capitalism.
Even though I could not be more opposed to Trump, these proposals would actually fulfill some of his campaign's promises to those who voted for him, as well as being something even Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders could get behind.
And it would make establishment Republican heads explode for an added bonus.