Trump Took a Page Out of the Reagan Economic Policy Play Book on Monday

Donald Trump laid out his economic plan at the prestigious Detroit Economic Club on Monday. Trump said he will cut taxes across the board and will put America first in all his economic decisionmaking : "Americanism, not globalism, will be our new credo....I want to jump-start America,” he said, in a speech that won a lot of applause and some standing ovations. Trump also blamed Hillary Clinton for supporting trade deals that he claimed resulted in the collapse of Detroit's world-famous automobile industry : “Detroit is the living, breathing, example of my opponent’s failed economic agenda. Every policy that has failed this city and so many others is a policy supported by Hillary Clinton.” Trump went on to tie Hillary to her husband Bill Clinton's disastrous NAFTA free trade deal that he also described as destroying jobs in upstate New York -- something he said she did nothing to repair as New York Senator. “A vote for Hillary Clinton is a vote for TPP – and it’s also a vote for NAFTA. This is a strike at the heart of Michigan, and our nation as a whole,” he added, citing Bureau of Labor Statistics figures showing that before NAFTA, there were 285,000 auto workers in Michigan, compared with only 160,000 today. “Detroit is still waiting for Hillary Clinton’s apology. I expect Detroit will get that apology right around the same time Hillary Clinton turns over the 33,000 emails she deleted.” While Donald Trump’s longstanding position about renegotiating all US trade deals so that American workers and the American economy come first does not reflect conservative and Republican policy on free trade, there has been little protest from these groups about his plan to renegotiate trade deals -- perhaps because most Republican voters support Trump's position. But, the tax proposals he outlined Monday echo the Republican Party's and House Speaker Paul Ryan's tax agenda. Trump pledged to eliminate the estate tax and add a new tax deduction for childcare, a project he credited his daughter Ivanka for championing -- spokesman Larry Kudlow later said that the details of the deduction are still being worked out but that there will be an income cap on it. Trump also said he will adopt the House Republican rates of zero, 12, 25, and 33 percent. Trump called his plan a shot in the arm for American business as he heavily criticized Hillary Clinton for promoting policies that have sent and kept jobs overseas. His tax plan will also allow business to write off investments immediately instead of waiting until the end of the year, will cut regulations “massively” and will lower the business tax rate to 15%. His tax plan, Trump said, will allow "new dollars and wealth to come pouring into our country -- and into cities like Detroit.” He added : "No one will gain more from these proposals than low-and-middle income Americans.” ~~~~~~ In this critically important speech -- meant to flesh out his economic policies and also to regain his position in campaign polls -- Trump returned to his ‘America First’ theme, repeating it often and taking on the mantle of defender of renewed American economic growth and prosperity, while calling Hillary Clinton the advocate of globalist policies that he says favor other countries, leaving American workers jobless as American industry crumbles. Trump promised : “We will put new American metal into the spine of this nation....It will be American hands that rebuild this country, and it will be American energy - mined from American sources - that powers this country....Our country will reach amazing new heights.” ~~~~~~Dear readers, interestingly, although Trump was interrupted more than ten times by protesters, who, at regular intervals, tried to tempt him to depart from his prepared speech and lash out at them as he often has in the past, thus creating more unwanted campaign distractions, Trump stayed calm. He smiled and said, “Thank you, thank you,” as his audience silenced the protesters with boo's. “It's all very well planned out,” he said of the interruptions that occurred every few minutes. AND, Trump stuck largely to his script -- sending out to America a traditional Republican economic message of tax reduction and regulation cutbacks, with Trump specialties added, as he promised to tear down and renegotiate trade deals, while attacking globalism and its proponent Hillary and her campaign. Without alienating his primary season base, Trump delivered a reassuring message to the GOP on Monday -- his business-based rhetoric, the Republican substance of his speech, and perhaps most important, his calm demeanor, even when heckled by protesters eager to send him off the rails. Michigan is a potential swing state in the general election because of Trump’s appeal with blue-collar white workers. The polls had shown Trump ahead of Hillary in Michigan, but in the last two unsettling weeks, Clinton, has moved ahead in Michigan, attacking Trump's "unfitness" to be President and touting President Obama’s decision to bail out the auto industry in 2009. But, Michigan's heart is in Trump's corner. Michigan voters know that Bill Clinton's NAFTA destroyed their economy, that it was Democrat not GOP policies that brought down the American automobile industry. Other Democrat-created 'Rust Belt' states -- Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, New Hampshire, Illinois -- understand this, too. And, as Trump pounded home in the Energy portion of his economic speech, voters in coal states like West Virginia, Kentucky, Indiana, Arkansas, as well as voters in oil states like Louisiana, Texas, Oklahoma, North and South Dakota, know that Donald Trump is not going to tax and regulate their industrial bases to the point of destruction. Trump will free them to rebuild their industries and nourish the rest of America with the resources it needs to "Make America Great Again." Donald Trump took a page out of the Reagan economic policy play book on Monday. If the GOP is smart enough to understand this and support Trump, and if Trump stays on message, there is no way that Hillary Clinton and her tax-and-spend Democrat agenda that has crippled American industry and jobs -- Trump called it "Yesterday's Agenda" -- can win in November. No Way.