For months, Donald Trump has been adding new tax cuts to his list of campaign promises. He says he wants to exempt tips, cut the corporate rate and end the tax on Social Security.
His plans have real political appeal — people tend to love paying lower taxes — but independent analyses suggest that Trump’s plans could add close to $4 trillion over the next decade to the national debt.
It is not yet possible to make a similar estimate for Kamala Harris because she has not yet detailed her own economic policy proposals. But her campaign said today that her plans would be similar to President Biden’s proposals to reduce the deficit by about $3 trillion over the next decade, largely by raising taxes on corporations and high earners.
Harris and her running mate, Tim Walz, are campaigning this evening in Arizona.
Trump is holding an event tonight in Montana, where Republicans are looking to unseat a Democratic senator.
Your questions:
We asked readers what they’d like to know about the election, and hundreds of people wrote in with questions for our reporters on the ground. Today, we’re featuring the first question. We gave it to Rebecca Davis O’Brien, who covers national politics.
What’s going on with RFK Jr.? Is there a chance he’ll drop out? Does he take more votes from Harris or Trump? — Seth Knievel, Dallas.
Rebecca: The Kennedy campaign is plowing forward with its expensive effort to get on the ballot in all 50 states. He’s on in 19 states, with others likely to follow.
Support for independent candidates tends to fade as the election draws near, and that has been the case for Kennedy: Independent polling suggests that he is hovering at around 5 percent nationally. President Biden’s departure from the race has also shifted the math: While Kennedy once drew about equally from Biden and Trump, polling now suggests he draws more votes from Trump. When Kennedy is absent from the race, Trump pulls ahead of Harris.
If you’d like your question answered, you can send it to us here.
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