Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush says Donald Trump's tax plan is going to increase the deficit more than his plan, citing a think tank analysis of the two proposals.
"So our plan has been scored, the terminology to, you know, to determine what the impact is over ten years at a certain amount and the Trump deficit in his plan, the estimate by the same group is it's three times larger, it's 10 trillion dollars and there's no dynamic effect of increasing economic activity that overcomes that and so maybe Donald needs to go back to the drawing board in that regard," the former governor of Florida told Concord News Radio on Wednesday.
Bush said there were similarities between his plan and Trump's plan, which reduces rates across the board, but said the growth created by his plan is far greater.
"In our case, the economic growth will create a significant, will cover a significant portion of that and what I commit to is that we're going to reduce the spending in Washington D.C. to deal with the rest of it," he added.
Similarly, in another radio interview earlier in the day, Bush gave Trump kudos, but again, said his plan would increase the debt.
"And the Trump plan mirrors some of the elements of it and I applaud that, lowering rates, eliminating some exemption," Bush said of his own plan on New Hampshire Today radio. "But according to the Tax Foundation, the conservative think tank that does the scoring for these budgets, it would create a ten-trillion dollar hole that you can't overcome by any kind of dynamic scoring. Kudos for Mr. Trump for being specific because up 'til now he's basically just been insulting people and using bluster as a campaign tool but I think his plan probably isn't gonna create the kind of economic impact that mine will."
Bush noted the growth from his plan would mean it would only increase the deficit a trillion dollars over ten years.
"First of all the growth side cuts this to close to a trillion dollars over 10 years," he said. "Sounds like a lot of money, but over ten years that's 100 billion dollars. We're spending over those 10 years 50 trillion or 45 trillion dollars just to put it into perspective. And so growth covers most of it and then the rest comes from curbing the growth and spending."
Bush said changes to Obamacare, Medicaid and Medicare, and Social Security would help handle the country's rising debt.
"It requires a whole new approach to how you deal with entitlements," said Bush. "It requires repealing Obamacare and replacing it with a consumer-driven system where tax credits are the principal means by which the federal government provides support for families. It means dealing with the entitlement challenges and the changing demographics of our country."
