As Donald Trump pivots to the general election battle, he's already walking back his tax plan, the most specific policy proposal he has released during the campaign.
"By the time it gets negotiated, it's going to be a different plan," Trump told George Stephanopoulos on ABC News' "This Week."
In Trump’s tax plan, the wealthiest individuals would get a tax break, with the top tax rate dropping from 39.6 percent to 25 percent. But when pressed if he wants taxes on the wealthy to go up or down, he predicted that the top rate would be higher than the plan says.
"On my plan they're going down. But by the time it's negotiated, they'll go up," Trump said. "Look, when I'm negotiating with the Democrats, I'm putting in a plan. I'm putting in my optimum plan. It's going to be negotiated, George. It's not going to stay there. They're not going to say, 'There's your plan, let's approve it.' They're going to say, 'Let's see what we can do.'"
While Trump said he would like to keep everything in his plan, his top priorities would be lowering taxes on businesses and the middle class, not helping the rich.
"I will try and keep everything. What I really want is lower on business, because business, we're the highest-taxed nation in the world. And I want lower on the middle class," he said.
"I am looking at it, and I haven't decided in terms of numbers. But I think people have to get more," Trump said.
Throughout the primaries, Trump had been against increasing the minimum wage, but as the Republican Party's presumptive nominee, he's changing.
"Sure, it's a change. I'm allowed to change. You need flexibility, George, whether it's a tax plan, where you're going -- where you know you're going to negotiate. But we're going to come up with something. But my real minimum wage is going to be -- I'm going to bring companies back into this country, and they're going to make a lot more than the $15 even," Trump said.
Unclear is whether Trump supports a direct hike in the minimum wage or simply intends to achieve it through greater economic prosperity.
He also said he was ok with the idea of shorting US bond holders giving them a haircut of 20% of the face value of the bond. So much for the idea of 'full faith and credit ' . His plan if true would make us the Argentina of the North.
Just change the interest rates, like the banks do all the time on credit card and savings accounts. If they squawk, then to paraphrase the Supreme Court:
To engraft upon the federal bond holders system a concept of ‘accrued property rights’ would deprive it of the flexibility and boldness in adjustment to ever changing conditions which it demands.
