Sanders: Trump tax plan ‘totally absurd’

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) on Friday tore into President Trump’s tax proposal, calling it “totally absurd.”

“What concerns me right now, I have to tell you sitting here in the Congress, is these incredible tax breaks that President Trump and the Republican leadership are proposing,” Sanders said on “CBS This Morning.”

“It just seems to me in a time of massive income and wealth inequality, the idea that we would give $353 billion in tax breaks to the top two-tenths of 1 percent while cutting back on education and healthcare and the needs of our children and seniors is, to me, totally absurd.”

{mosads}The White House on Wednesday presented a sweeping plan to lower tax rates for individuals and businesses, calling it the biggest tax cut in U.S. history.

The plan would cut the top personal income tax rate from 39.6 percent to 35 percent, and double the standard deduction for taxpayers while eliminating all credits and deductions save for mortgage interest and charitable giving.

The proposal would also reduce the tax rate for corporations and most small businesses to 15 percent, more than halving the current 35 percent corporate rate. And it calls for the end of the estate tax and alternative minimum tax.

Democrats have hammered the plan as a giveaway to the rich while Republicans say it provides tax relief for individuals and businesses.