Donald Trump recently courted the “tea party” vote ahead of a Nashville straw poll. Here are 7 of their documented views on the issues.
1.
Bank Bailouts. Tea party hated them. Donald Trump supported them: “Now, I did not know about a $700 billion bailout, in all fairness. And I think probably, it is something — it’s sad, but, probably, it’s something that has to get done, because your financial system is most likely going to come to a halt if it does not. So, it is a pretty sad day for this country.”
2.
Stimulus. Tea party hated it. Donald Trump supported it: “It is a bad sound bite, but I thought [President Obama] did a terrific job. This is a strong guy knows what he wants, and this [the stimulus package] is what we need.”
3.
Auto-bailouts. The tea party was against them. Donald Trump supported them: “I think the government should stand behind them 100 percent. You cannot lose the auto companies. They’re great. They make wonderful products.”
4.
Blames 2007 market crash on Bush, thought housing market was fine in March 2007: “Now, as far as the housing market, I think it’s okay. It’s not terrible, it’s not great — it’s okay. It was great two years ago; now it’s fine, it’s solid.” The Fed continued to slash interest rates as Trump advised at that point, contributing to the housing market bubble. He recently stated that “I like low interest rates,” then went on to say The Fed is “creating a bubble.”
5.
Higher taxes. The tea party opposed them. Donald Trump supports raising marginal rates: “The hedge fund guys are getting away with murder. They’re making a tremendous amount of money. They have to pay taxes. I want to lower the rates for the middle class.” (CBS via Bloomberg) Reason magazine points out that the economy and job creation boomed when presidents John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan lowered marginal rates.
6.
Economic policies. The tea party vehemently opposed the tax-and-spend policies of the Democratic Congress since 2006 and detested the high national debt. Donald Trump said in 2004: “I’ve been around a long time. And it just seems the economy does better under the Democrats than under Republicans.”
7.
Government-run healthcare. The tea party railed against Obamacare and single-payer. Donald Trump supports universal healthcare: “But I’m quite liberal and getting much more liberal on healthcare and other things. I really say: What’s the purpose of a country if you’re not going to have [universal] healthcare?”
It’s up to the reader to decide how well the positions of Donald Trump and the Tea Party have historically aligned.
Source:
http://www.ijreview.com/2015/08/407331-donald-trump-goes-after-the-tea-party-vote-here-are-7-things-about-that/