Former President Donald Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis are headed for a showdown in the 2024 Republican primary, and it’s already hinting at a bitter personality clash.
However, the two countries’ stances on tax and spending policies are not that different.
The Republican Party, largely reshaped by Mr. Trump’s success in 2016, has lost many prominent conservatives, including the Florida governor, who polls show is Mr. Trump’s biggest rival for the Republican presidential nomination. agree with Trump on the economy.
DeSantis filed paperwork Wednesday to begin his presidential campaign. Here’s how he and Trump agree on five key financial areas:
social security and medicare
Republicans have pushed various types of changes, from lowering the national eligibility system to raising the eligibility age, on the grounds that doing so would promote the system’s longevity and reduce the size of government. This is because it is claimed.
But Mr. Trump and Mr. DeSantis are now united in their opposition to that idea, advocating for the widely popular show to remain as is.
During the 2016 presidential campaign, Trump was, and continues to be, perhaps the party’s loudest voice in favor of keeping the plan intact.
“Under no circumstances should Republicans vote to cut Medicare or Social Security by a penny,” President Trump said in January during the early stages of ongoing talks in Washington over debt and government spending. said in a video message.
“Cut waste, fraud and abuse everywhere. There’s a lot of it,” President Trump said at the time. “But don’t cut the benefits that our predecessors worked all their lives to pay for. Save Social Security, don’t destroy it.”
DeSantis sounded a similar note.
“Look, we have more seniors here than anyone else, percentage-wise,” he said on Fox News in March. “As Republicans, we’re not going to interfere with Social Security. I think that’s very clear.”
However, Trump and DeSantis have previously spoken differently on the issue.
Mr. DeSantis has supported certain changes to Social Security during his time in Congress, including supporting a nonbinding resolution proposing to raise the Social Security retirement age to 70, a record that Mr. Trump has already surpassed. It’s attacking.
The resolution, sponsored by Mr. DeSantis, also called for moving Medicare from a government-funded program to one in which the government allocates money that beneficiaries can spend on private insurance.
Trump has also expressed support for certain reforms in the past.
In his 2000 book “The America We Deserve,” Trump supported raising the retirement age to 70 and called Social Security a “pyramid scheme.” He also said in 1999 that he was open to privatizing Social Security, but said he “doesn’t like the idea.”
tax
Trump will continue to boast about one of his signature legislative victories as president: the massive tax cuts he signed into law in 2017.
He and other administration officials said the cuts would pay for themselves by increasing spending and stimulating growth. However, a recent report by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office found that making the provisions of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act permanent would increase the nation’s budget deficit by $3.5 trillion.
Mr. DeSantis, on the other hand, co-sponsored the Fair Tax Act of 2015, having voted in favor of the bill during his time in the House. The law states that “a 23% consumption tax will be imposed in place of the current income tax, corporate tax, employment tax, and out-of-pocket tax” – employment tax, inheritance tax, and gift tax,” and from 2019 onwards, internal revenue We stopped funding the agency.
President Trump’s allies have harshly criticized DeSantis over his past support for a 23% tax, and political groups supporting him have dubbed the Florida governor the “Ron DeSales tax” in an ad. This has prompted the activities of major pro-DeSantis super PACs. to circulate his support In a past interview, he talked about whether it was a “fair tax or a flat tax.”
DeSantis also proposed a plan earlier this year that he claimed would provide $2 billion in tax relief, including “a one-year sales tax exemption on children’s items such as books and toys, clothing, cribs, It included a permanent sales tax exemption for infant and toddler essentials, such as baby products. and strollers, and the expansion of the annual back-to-school tax holiday. ”
trade
During his 2016 campaign, Mr. Trump upended Republican support for free trade agreements by telling voters that other countries were using such agreements to take advantage of the United States. As president he also started a trade war with China.
In the plan announced in February, President Trump called for a “new pro-American system that would impose universal standard tariffs on most foreign products” and a “four-year phase-out of imports of essential goods from China.” We asked for the adoption of the “Plan”.
“My cutting-edge trade policy will revitalize our economy by putting America first again. We will soon become the greatest manufacturing power the world has ever seen,” Trump said at the time. It will be,” he argued.
Mr. DeSantis has not said much about trade, but on recent trips abroad he called for more cooperation between Florida and South Korea in areas such as space and aviation.
During his time in Congress, he advocated for stronger protections for Florida farmers under the North American Free Trade Agreement, which Trump abandoned during his term but replaced with a similar agreement.
Spending and the Federal Reserve
Neither Mr. Trump nor Mr. DeSantis has laid out detailed plans for how they will address inflation, but their past comments give some indication of their views on government spending and monetary policy.
Throughout his presidency, Trump has been harshly critical of Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, urging the Fed to lower borrowing rates both before and during the coronavirus pandemic. He joined many other political leaders in supporting the government’s direct payments to Americans as a way to address unemployment and economic instability caused by the public health crisis.
With Republicans now blaming federal spending under Democratic administrations for high inflation, Mr. DeSantis has enacted a massive omnibus package in 2017 and 2018, as well as a wide range of new government measures. He could be a contrast to Trump, who signed the first round of coronavirus relief packages.
President Trump praised the $1.2 trillion bill signed into law in 2017 and denounced the $1.3 trillion bill in 2018 before signing it. Mr. DeSantis voted against both bills.
Mr. Trump and Mr. DeSantis have also criticized Mr. Powell, but Mr. Trump nominated him to his current position.
rules
Mr. Trump and Mr. DeSantis have found common ground on the issue of federal regulation.
During his time in office, the former president showed a commitment to thoroughly eliminate bureaucracy, and in a policy announced in April, he stated that he would “bring independent regulatory agencies such as the FCC and FTC back under the authority of the president.”
“No longer will the unelected members of the Washington Swamp be allowed to act as the fourth branch of the republic,” he declared, adding that if re-elected, he would repeal two old regulations for every new regulation enacted. He vowed to reinstate the presidential order issued during his term.
Mr. DeSantis took a similar position during his time in Congress, supporting legislation that would require Congress to vote on regulations deemed to have a significant impact on the economy before going into effect.