The New York Times released a “bombshell” report revealing that President Trump paid a mere $750 dollars in federal income taxes during the first year of his presidency. Already, it has prompted a larger conversation on the structure of our tax code. Sens. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren have taken the opportunity to demand once more that the United States “tax the rich.”
At the end of the day, it’s just not as simple as that. Merely increasing tax rates would not increase the president’s federal income tax liability because he has none. Sanders and Warren know that, too. Instead, they’d happily force him and other rich businesspeople to pay more by eliminating or restricting the deductions they use, but these deductions aren’t worth tossing out just because Trump found a bunch of ways to get out of paying the government. After all, these same deductions have granted tremendous benefits to our economy, helping out the rich and poor alike. Here’s how.
