Story highlights Donald Trump was elected president because he spoke to a working class upset with politics as usual, says Ed McCaffery

McCaffery: So instead of the standard GOP trickle-down plan, why not vastly reduce the number of people who owe tax?

Edward J. McCaffery is Robert C. Packard trustee chair in law and a professor of law, economics and political science at the University of Southern California. He is the author of "Fair Not Flat: How to Make the Tax System Better and Simpler." The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the author.

(CNN) Donald Trump was elected president because he spoke to a working class upset with elites, politics as usual, and its own lack of economic progress. Fair enough.

But now, in the critically important area of tax, we may be about to get a bait and switch. Trump appears ready to follow the as-usual Republican tax policy by proposing a massive trickle-down cut that will save the richest people lots of money. Trump even bragged on this to diners at the fancy 21 Club in New York, as he sneaked out for a steak this week.

Edward J. McCaffery

Ronald Reagan wrote this script, at a time when tax rates were indeed too high even for most elites to stomach; the highest rate when Reagan took office was 70%. George W. Bush went back to this playbook in 2001 and again in 2003, slashing tax rates again from the top down. That worked well for a bit but helped to leave the economy in shambles by 2008, leading to the Great Recession and ushering in Barack Obama's presidency. Trickle down has been done.

Trump wants his policies big and bold. And, one would think, different, because Trump and his movement are different from the same-old same-old.

So how about this? If Trump wants to be both really bold and to answer to his own base of loyal supporters, he could try something new -- he could cut taxes from the bottom up. That is, he could take all the trillions he is willing to spend on reducing the income tax and put them all into a single item -- raising the threshold for even paying the tax.

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