The proposed tax reform put forth by President Trump and congressional Republicans promotes the long-discredited economic theory that asserts that a tax cut for the wealthy would be good for the working classes (“Commentary: Trump’s tax cuts weighed in favor of those who don’t need them,” Sept. 28).
Trump claims “I will give you everything” with a plan that would reduce taxes for corporations and wealthy Americans but eliminate deductions for state and local income taxes and property taxes in the belief that it would grow the economy.
Economist John Kenneth Galbraith gave the coup de grâce to this proposition with his usual precision when he said that this trickle-down theory was “the less-than-elegant metaphor that if one feeds the horse enough oats, some will pass through to the road for the sparrows.”
Robert F. Lyons
Kennebunkport
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