RUSH: Yeah, I checked in with Trump and his speech at the Economic Club of Detroit, and I gotta tell you: This audience is eating it up. He is bashing Hillary Clinton’s economics. I heard him preview what his tax philosophy is, and he practically got a standing ovation on that one. He hasn’t gotten into detail yet except on one thing, and in the middle of it when he started talking about only his campaign’s reaching out to everybody and trying to unite everybody, some protestor started screeching like Hillary Clinton, and they had to drag her out of there.
And there might have been another protestor that was distracting and they had to drag out. But half of the room booed, half the room cheered, and I said, “Whoa, this is interesting.” Now, the carry-the-interest tax deduction is basically a sop to the hedge fund community. It is a tax law. It’s the official law that allows hedge funds and other similarly structured financial magnet houses to only pay a tax rate that’s pretty much equivalent to capital gains, rather than the earned-income tax rate. It just has the name “carried interest.”
It’s thought to be unfairly low. I mean, these are billionaires. Why should they not be charged for earned income, which is what people think this is?
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RUSH: Okay, five or six protestors have had to be escorted out of the Trump speech at the Economic Club of Detroit. There goes the sixth now. They’re all women. They’re all white women. And they all protest at… You can tell it’s at intervals. When Trump says something that’s not an obvious applause line is when they start screaming and yelling. You can’t understand what they’re saying, but they’re dragging them out of there every time it happens. And that’s great to see.
You know, whenever I have made speeches elsewhere, anywhere, protestors have not been hauled out. Nobody drags ’em out of there. But they are doing this for Trump, and it’s allowing him to continue. And I… Look, you’re gonna hear these highlights as we continue, ’cause we’re rolling on this right now. I have to tell you something that just happened. Every time Donald Trump criticizes Hillary Clinton, that room explodes.
They chronicle all of the falsehoods, the “short-circuits,” the lies and so forth. And Trump is referencing that story. And whenever he talks about his economic policy and how it’s gonna make us more competitive and it’s gonna create jobs, this place erupts, the Economic Club of Detroit. But when he criticizes… This is significant: When he criticizes her policies… He hasn’t started making fun of her for anything. It’s all policy related.
When he criticizes her policies, this room erupts. The protestors are starting to show up with a little bit more frequency now. I’m sure the Economic Club of Detroit is starting to ask itself, “How the hell did these people get in there?” But they’re escorting them out, and it looks like… (interruption) Yeah, it’s another woman. This looks like can’t tell. African-American? But it’s a bunch of women in there protesting Trump.
It’s well planned. These intervals are well thought out. But Trump’s unfazed about it. He’s laughing at it and talking. Now, I want to get in this New York Times story. We will have all this for you in due course.
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RUSH: Donald Trump and his speech to the Economic Club of Detroit. Now, let me just set this up by telling you what this was. It was a classic speech for a Republican candidate for president on economics. It was classic, I think purposely so. By classic, I mean it was what you would expect any Republican to say he was for economically running for president: low taxes, limited government, entrepreneurism, economic advancement, freedom and liberty. But he did throw in, he did throw some things to his base.
The base is not crazy. Trump’s base is not all that crazy about a traditional Republican or Democrat economic speech ’cause they don’t believe it. But Trump covered ’em. He threw in that he either wants to throw NAFTA out or renegotiate it so it’s favorable to us, and if that doesn’t happen he’s gonna throw it out. And he threw in forcibly his opposition to the Trans-Pacific Partnership.
So he covered all of his bases. And there’s no question in my mind that one of the intentions here was to stop the bleeding from all of the damage that was done last week, whether it was legit or made up. So we will see. It was a good speech. It was really, really well accepted. This crowd was on its feet a number of times, particularly when the Trumpster criticized Hillary and her economic policies. Let’s get started.
TRUMP: All Hillary Clinton has to offer is more of the same: more taxes, more regulations, more bureaucrats, more restrictions on American energy and on American production, more of that. If you were a foreign power looking to weaken America, you couldn’t do better than Hillary Clinton’s economic agenda. My campaign is about reaching out to everyone, as Americans, and returning to a government that puts the American people first.
RUSH: That’s when the protestors, that was the first — yeah, right. By the way, we edited this applause. I’m gonna make an executive decision. I’m gonna leave some of this applause in a little longer, ’cause it has an effect, a positive effect. So Cookie leave the applause in a little longer here, and the boos as well. It all matters. But that’s when Trump first started getting protested, and you heard him raise his volume level, start speaking over them, and the crowd wanted no part of it. The crowd, they ran ’em out of there as soon as they piped up. Here’s the next bite.
TRUMP: Recently at a campaign event, Hillary Clinton short-circulated — you know this, you’ve heard this one. Hillary Clinton short-circuited again, to use a now famous term, when she accidentally told the truth and said that she wanted to raise taxes on the middle class. I am proposing an across-the-board income tax reduction, especially for middle income Americans. This will lead to millions of new and really good-paying jobs. The rich will pay their fair share, but no one will pay so much that it destroys jobs or undermines our ability as a nation to complete.
CROWD: (applause)
RUSH: That went on and on and on. That applause went on for 10 seconds minimum, and some people came out of their seats and stood up, standing ovation at that one. Don’t doubt me. Here’s the next bite. And this is the reference here to carried interest. And you’ll hear the room kind of get a little subdued on this one.
TRUMP: We will eliminate the carried interest deduction, well known deduction, and other special interest loopholes that have been so good for Wall Street investors and people like me, but unfair to American workers. Tax simplification will be a major feature of the plan.
CROWD: (applause)
TRUMP: My plan will reduce the current number of brackets from seven to three and dramatically streamline the process.
CROWD: (applause)
TRUMP: We will work with House Republicans on this plan using the same brackets they have proposed, 12%, 25%, and 33%. For many American workers, their tax rate will be zero.
RUSH: Which it is now. There’s quite a few people that pay zero tax, particularly when you factor in the earned income tax credit that they get. Now, it’s interesting to point out that back in 1986 we reduced our tax rates to — well, it was two, but there was for a small bubble of people there were three rates. It was 15 and 28%, and a certain small bubble group paid 31. I of course ended up in that group. But notice now we’re back up to seven.
Now, what happened in 1986 was, when Reagan took office — don’t forget this — when Ronaldus Magnus took office, the top marginal tax rate was 70%. Now, nobody paid it. That was what was crazy about the tax code. There were all kinds of shelters and deductions that you could take, and that you were incentivized to take before you ever got to pay 70% on the last dollar you earn, marginal tax rate. And it used to be 90%. Anyway, Reagan takes office, top marginal tax rate is 70%, when he leaves office, the top marginal rate’s 28%.
So now we’re back up to seven income tax rates, or brackets, up from two or three in 1986, and the deductions are way, way gone. I think the largest deduction you can get is 33 or 39 cents per dollar. You never get a full deduction no matter what it is. So Trump wants to bring it back down to three rates. I thought that bite had the carried interest, but it didn’t. So let’s keep going. Here’s the next one.
TRUMP: She pledged 200,000 jobs for upstate New York when she was a Senator. But what happened? The Washington Post writes, “Manufacturing jobs plunging record setting levels, plunging nearly 25%. Many promised jobs” — they were all promised. I remember it so well. Vote for Hillary, she’ll bring back your jobs. “Many promised jobs never materialized and others migrated to other states.” She turned her first presidential run, which also was a disaster. Thank you.
RUSH: I’m telling you — by the way, I was wrong. He did mention carried interest in the first sentence of our bite up there and I missed it when it went by. I was waiting for it later in the bite. Anyway, you hear the crowd go nuts every time she is criticized. Again, we edit the applause here for time stake, but we really need to leave this in on occasion because it went on and on and on, and it’s an opinion in and of itself.
It’s one thing for me to sit here and tell you the crowd went nuts, but if you heard it, it would have a whole different effect on you. It would let you know how many people are in agreement with what Trump is saying, and this is in Detroit, which is a blue state, their Economic Club. But he hit a lot of home runs in this speech today.
Nope, I’ll tell you what. Gonna take a brief time-out, there’s three more, and this is an opportune time to take a break and have plenty of time on the other side to get the other three in.
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RUSH: Okay. I want you to listen sound bite 24 again, ’cause I could have sworn… I’m doing this on the fly. I could have sworn when he mentioned eliminating carried interest that the crowd got very quiet; some of them booed. But in the bite we played, it didn’t happen. It’s the first thing in this. I’m not going to play the whole bite again, just enough of this for me to get a feel. It’s number 24. Hit it again. Three … two … one…
TRUMP: We will eliminate the carried-interest deduction — a well-known deduction — and other special interest loopholes that have been so good for Wall Street —
RUSH: All right. All right. Okay. Okay. Well, now, I’m now confused. I’m gonna do a search of the transcript of this thing and see if he mentioned it again, because I could swear… I know these guys do not want the carried-interest deduction eliminated. I mean, would you? If you’re a gazillionaire, and your income is taxed at 25%, would you want that eliminated in exchange for paying 39.6% on it?
The deal they’ve got now is they pay whatever the capital gains rate is, and for many people it’s just earned income. But for them, the way hedge funds financially are structured, they’ve been able to call it carried interest. It’s really convoluted. It’s typical, typical convoluted tax law. And I could have sworn that there was a negative reaction to it. So I might… As I say, I listen to this stuff all on the fly during commercial breaks and have heard something else. Also Trump’s tax rates, his brackets, he announced 12%, 25%, and 33%.
That 33% used to be 28%. Trump’s original proposal was 12%, 25%, and 28%. The 28 has become 33. (interruption) Hmm? (interruption) Just the three brackets. (interruption) Well, I don’t have the income levels, so I don’t know. That’s part of what’s yet to be released. But he does say that for many workers, their tax rate will be zero, which it is now. That’s the case now for the income tax rate. Everybody pays FICA, Social Security — if you work. You see. It’s hard to calculate those who don’t pay taxes. There are 94 million Americans not in the workforce.
Anyway, we have three more of these. Let’s go.
TRUMP: She supported Bill Clinton’s NAFTA, she supported China’s entrance into the World Trade Organization, she supported a job-killing trade deal with South Korea, and she supports the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Not now, but soon, if she wins — and we can’t let her win ’cause that will be a disaster for Detroit and everybody else.
CROWD: (applause)
TRUMP: Hillary Clinton’s closest friend, Terry McAuliffe, confirmed what I’ve been saying — and this is from the beginning. If sent to the Oval Office, Hillary Clinton will enact the TPP. Her donors will make sure of it. Detroit is still waiting for Hillary Clinton’s apology. I expect Detroit will get that apology right around the same time Hillary Clinton turns over the 33,000 emails she deleted.
CROWD: (wild cheers and applause)
RUSH: The crowd went nuts out there, folks, and the Russians are still trying to find them — and Julian Assange said the Russians did not leak them. And Julian Assange furthermore says he’s not out to sabotage Hillary. Julian Assange said, “You don’t understand, guys. We don’t release this stuff for any other reason than we want to get to the truth. Who it hurts, who it helps, that’s not how we do it here.” The journalists are saying, “Well, then you’re not one of us.
“You’re supposed to shield the stuff that hurts Hillary.” Well, they don’t say that to him, but that’s what they mean. But he says, “I’m not out there to hurt Hillary; I’m not out there to help her. I’m just telling you: This is what we got, and we’re gonna dump it!” He says the Russians were not the source of the leak. Here Trump is assuring everybody, contrary to what they’re saying, he’s not an isolationist.
TRUMP: Trade has big benefits, and I am in favor of trade. But I want trade deals for our country that create more jobs and higher wages for American workers. Isolation is not an option! Only great and well-crafted trade deals where we, as a country, for once benefit instead of being taken advantage — instead of being taken advantage of. We are gonna benefit, and our workers are going to benefit or we’re not gonna make those deals.
CROWD: (applause)
RUSH: Economic Club of Detroit, Donald Trump. We’ve got one more, and he really caught fire at the end of this thing. But I tell you, the whole speech… We’ve edited out most of the protestors. There five or six of them. But he got numerous standing O’s in this speech, and we’ve got one more example of it we get back and then back to your phone calls.
So sit tight, my friends. We’ll be before you know it here.
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RUSH: Here is belatedly the last sound bite we have from the Trump speech to the Economic Club of Detroit today.
TRUMP: American cars will travel the roads. American planes will connect our cities. And American ships will patrol the seas. American steel will send new skyscrapers soaring. We will put new American metal into the spine of this nation. It will be American hands that rebuild this country, and it will be American energy mined from American sources that powers this country. It will be American workers who are hired to do the job. Americanism, not globalism, will be our new credo.
RUSH: And the globalists are shuddering in fear. The globalists are angry and can’t believe that this guy with his nationalism is being so applauded. But, remember, for all of that that you heard, he did rip on to the NAFTA deal and demanded it be renegotiated or gotten rid of if we can’t make it America-favorable and said “no” to TPP. So, as I say, he caught fire there at the end.