美国国家公共电台 NPR How Did Trump's and Clinton's Economic Policy Speeches Compare?

How Did Trump¹'s and Clinton's Economic Policy Speeches Compare?

SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

In a political season where insults and hyperbole have often overshadowed policy, this week, the major party candidates tried to deliver some real economic substance. Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump each gave high-profile speeches this week on their economic plans. Danielle Kurtzleben parsed² both speeches for us, and let's see what we can learn. Danielle, thanks very much for joining us.

DANIELLE KURTZLEBEN, BYLINE³: Of course.

SIMON: You think the two candidates aren't quite as far apart as a lot of people think.

KURTZLEBEN: Right. And one of the big areas you can see this is on trade policy. We, of course, throughout the campaign season, have seen both candidates really railing against these trade deals. Donald Trump, of course, really, really is opposed to the Trans-Pacific Partnership⁴. And here's what Hillary Clinton had to say about that in her speech this week.

(SOUNDBITE OF SPEECH)

HILLARY CLINTON: My message to every worker in Michigan and across America is this. I will stop any trade deal that kills jobs or holds down wages, including the Trans-Pacific Partnership.

(APPLAUSE)

KURTZLEBEN: Now both candidates really have very similar underlying⁵ messages. They both say, yes, I'm not opposed to trade itself, but I am opposed to bad trade deals - what they consider unfair trade deals. They both said they want to renegotiate NAFTA. They both criticized China a lot. They say that they want to use tariffs⁶ in some form.

Now, Trump really likes to attack Clinton because she used to be for the Trans-Pacific Partnership back when she was in the Obama administration. Now she accuses him of going too far on trade and wanting to close the country off. Incidentally, there's one other area the two candidates are very close on, and that's infrastructure⁷ spending. She wants...

SIMON: Every politician thinks infrastructure spending is a good idea.

KURTZLEBEN: Oh, absolutely. The question is, you know - how do you pay for it? And she wants to spend $275 billion over five years. Now, Trump, interestingly, has said, you know, around 500 billion. And unlike a lot of other Republicans, he's said, you know, it might just be fine for the government to borrow a lot of money to spend on infrastructure.

SIMON: They both have child care plans, too.

KURTZLEBEN: Right. So here's what they both had to say about their child care plans.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

DONALD TRUMP: My plan will also help reduce the cost of child care by allowing parents to fully⁸ deduct⁹ the average cost of child care spending from their taxes.

(APPLAUSE)

CLINTON: I think instead we should expand the child tax credit to provide real relief to tens of millions of working families struggling with the costs of raising children - the same families that his plan ignores. And that's just a start.

KURTZLEBEN: So they both want to help families afford child care. As any parent knows, child care is super expensive, but their plans to do it aren't really terribly similar. What Donald Trump said right there is that he wants to create a tax deduction¹⁰. He really got criticized heavily for this this week because many people said that would largely help richer families. That's because it's a deduction. It comes off of your taxable income. It's not a credit that you might get refunded¹¹ to you. So he took a lot of heat for that. So he also after that said he had a plan for lower income families, saying that they could, for example, deduct their child care costs from their payroll¹² taxes.

Hillary Clinton, on the other hand - she's made child care affordability¹³ a big part of her campaign. And one of her plans is that she would limit expenses to 10 percent of families' income. As she said in this clip, she wants a bigger child tax credit. She would really subsidize child care. So that could also be an expensive plan.

SIMON: And what do their tax plans look like?

KURTZLEBEN: Well, here is Donald Trump talking about his tax plan.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

TRUMP: 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 compete.

KURTZLEBEN: Now, Hillary Clinton's tax plan looks starkly¹⁴ different. She says she wants to raise taxes, particularly on the rich. Trump has a very Republican-looking plan. He wants to get rid of the estate tax. He has a lower top rate for those high-earners and a much lower corporate¹⁵ tax rate.

SIMON: The idea of a lower corporate tax rate is to enable businesses to hire more people if they do well.

KURTZLEBEN: Right, and that's exactly what he says. And that's part of how he says he's going to bring jobs to the U.S. - is getting more companies to move to the U.S. But his plan really still does look like it would benefit the rich more than the poor.

SIMON: Daniel Kurtzleben, thanks very much for being with us.

KURTZLEBEN: Of course. Thank you.

1 trump   

n.王牌，法宝；v.打出王牌，吹喇叭

参考例句：

• He was never able to trump up the courage to have a showdown.他始终鼓不起勇气摊牌。
• The coach saved his star player for a trump card.教练保留他的明星选手，作为他的王牌。

2 parsed   

v.从语法上描述或分析（词句等）( parse的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• You should never assume any of the scripts being parsed are valid. 你绝不能假设所有的脚本都正确的解释。 来自互联网
• All text in an XML document will be parsed by the parser. XML文档中的所有文本都会被解析器解析。 来自互联网

3 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

4 partnership   

n.合作关系，伙伴关系

参考例句：

• The company has gone into partnership with Swiss Bank Corporation.这家公司已经和瑞士银行公司建立合作关系。
• Martin has taken him into general partnership in his company.马丁已让他成为公司的普通合伙人。

5 underlying   

adj.在下面的，含蓄的，潜在的

参考例句：

• The underlying theme of the novel is very serious.小说隐含的主题是十分严肃的。
• This word has its underlying meaning.这个单词有它潜在的含义。

6 tariffs   

关税制度； 关税( tariff的名词复数 )； 关税表； （旅馆或饭店等的）收费表； 量刑标准

参考例句：

• British industry was sheltered from foreign competition by protective tariffs. 保护性关税使英国工业免受国际竞争影响。
• The new tariffs have put a stranglehold on trade. 新的关税制对开展贸易极为不利。

7 infrastructure   

n.下部构造，下部组织，基础结构，基础设施

参考例句：

• We should step up the development of infrastructure for research.加强科学基础设施建设。
• We should strengthen cultural infrastructure and boost various types of popular culture.加强文化基础设施建设，发展各类群众文化。

8 fully   

adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地

参考例句：

• The doctor asked me to breathe in,then to breathe out fully.医生让我先吸气，然后全部呼出。
• They soon became fully integrated into the local community.他们很快就完全融入了当地人的圈子。

9 deduct   

vt.扣除，减去

参考例句：

• You can deduct the twenty - five cents out of my allowance.你可在我的零用钱里扣去二角五分钱。
• On condition of your signing this contract,I will deduct a percentage.如果你在这份合同上签字，我就会给你减免一个百分比。

10 deduction   

n.减除，扣除，减除额；推论，推理，演绎

参考例句：

• No deduction in pay is made for absence due to illness.因病请假不扣工资。
• His deduction led him to the correct conclusion.他的推断使他得出正确的结论。

11 refunded   

v.归还，退还( refund的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• Postage costs will be refunded (to you). 邮费将退还（给你）。 来自辞典例句
• Yes, it will be refunded to you at the expiration of the lease. 是的，租约期满时，押金退回。 来自无师自通 校园英语会话

12 payroll   

n.工资表，在职人员名单，工薪总额

参考例句：

• His yearly payroll is $1.2 million.他的年薪是120万美元。
• I can't wait to get my payroll check.我真等不及拿到我的工资单了。

13 affordability   

可购性

参考例句：

• Performance-Based Logistics Affordability: Can We Afford Categorical Conversion to Performance-Based Acquisition? 基于性能的后期的可承受性：能否担负得起向基于性能的采办的无条件的转变？
• There would be no crisis of affordability, as't for food or clothing. 就想食物与服装一样，因为供给没有危机。

14 starkly   

adj. 变硬了的,完全的 adv. 完全,实在,简直

参考例句：

• The city of Befast remains starkly divided between Catholics and Protestants. 贝尔法斯特市完全被处在天主教徒和新教徒的纷争之中。
• The black rocks stood out starkly against the sky. 那些黑色的岩石在天空衬托下十分显眼。

15 corporate   

adj.共同的，全体的；公司的，企业的

参考例句：

• This is our corporate responsibility.这是我们共同的责任。
• His corporate's life will be as short as a rabbit's tail.他的公司的寿命是兔子尾巴长不了。