Trump to outline economic policy as he seeks to regain momentum

[August 08, 2016]  By Steve Holland

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump on Monday will outline an economic plan that includes tax help for working families in a major speech in Detroit as he tries to regain momentum lost from a series of self-inflicted wounds.

Trump is to speak at noon EDT (1600 GMT) to the Detroit Economic Club and advisers said he will focus on trade, taxes, immigration and regulation. The club, whose members are area business leaders, is a traditional venue for political candidates to discuss their economic vision.

The Detroit speech will be Trump's first on the economy since announcing a 13-man team of economic advisers last week. It also comes after he slogged through perhaps his worst week as a candidate, getting entangled in a fight with the Muslim parents of an American soldier slain in Iraq in 2004 and sparring with Republican Party leaders.

A Trump campaign aide, who asked not to be identified, said Trump's economic plan will lessen the tax burden on parents who pay for childcare because "we don’t want it to be an economic disadvantage to have children.”

Trump also will propose stronger protections for American intellectual property and a temporary moratorium on new regulations, the aide said.

Trump's plans also include proposing a 15 percent corporate tax rate, an idea that is on his website. The current federal rate is 35 percent.

Members of Trump's advisory group shared their views on policy with senior Trump aides on Sunday in a conference call, said banker Stephen Calk, one of the members who took part.

Calk described Trump's vision for taxes as the biggest tax revolution since President Ronald Reagan in 1986. He said the plan was to lower the corporate tax burden and encourage U.S. companies with operations abroad to repatriate profits at a reduced tax rate.

The current corporate rate is 35 percent and Republicans have long sought to reduce it.

Trump's rough ride last week, plus a boost in support for Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton after she accepted her party's nomination at its Philadelphia convention, has taken its toll on him.

A Washington Post-ABC News poll released on Sunday gave Clinton an eight-point lead, 50 percent to 42 percent. A Reuters-Ipsos poll from last week had her in the lead with a smaller margin of three points.

Clinton will offer her own economic vision in a speech in Michigan on Thursday.

SEEKING MOMENTUM

Trump's Detroit event gives him a chance to regain the initiative and outline some substantive policy proposals on the economy ahead of the Nov. 8 election.

Republican U.S. presidential nominee Donald Trump attends campaign event at Windham High School in Windham, New Hampshire August 6, 2016. REUTERS/Eric Thayer

The New York real estate developer prides himself on his economic expertise and job-creating ability and blames President Barack Obama for what he calls a weak recovery from the 2008-2009 recession.

Larry Kudlow, an informal Trump adviser and CNBC commentator, wrote on CNBC.com that Trump will pledge to lower marginal tax rates on both large and small businesses and on all income classes. He also will propose an increase in the standard deduction for families and special deductions for childcare and the elderly, Kudlow said.

"All of these polices will help the middle class. Trump's plan will generate substantial new investment, business formation, jobs, and growth – and, hence, higher wages," he wrote.

Trump has vowed to rewrite some international trade deals, including the North American Free Trade Agreement of 1994, a deal linking the economies of the United States, Mexico and Canada and signed into law by Clinton's husband, then-President Bill Clinton.

Critics blame NAFTA for encouraging the outsourcing of jobs that have taken away many middle-class employment opportunities.

Peter Navarro, a University of California-Irvine professor who is the only formal Trump economic adviser with a deep academic background, said one of the problems Detroit has seen from NAFTA has been a movement of auto manufacturing jobs to Mexico, citing Ford and GM recently.
 

Trump also would reduce federal regulations that he blames for stifling economic activity. To stem illegal immigration, he said he would build a wall along the U.S. southern border with Mexico.

(Additional reporting by Mike Stone in New York and Emily Stephenson in Washington; Editing by Bill Trott)

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