Democrats could do business with Donald Trump

 

After Donald Trump’s election victory, Democratic legislators now face a fork in the road: cooperate with Trump or oppose him. Given the tenor of the Trump campaign - including its attacks on Latinos, Muslims and other minorities - it’s understandable that many Democrats feel the urge to dig in.

But many of Trump’s campaign promises actually represent long-time Democratic priorities.

Given these overlaps, it’s in Democrats’ best interest to at least explore working with Trump on these issues: Rebuilding the United States’ crumbling infrastructure - which needs $3.6 trillion by 2020, according to the American Society of Civil Engineers.

Trump made infrastructure a campaign priority, calling for $500 billion in additional spending .But given conservatives’ open resistance to Trump’s infrastructure spending, the president-elect will almost certainly need Congressional Democrats’ help to get an infrastructure bill passed. This does not mean Democrats should back whatever infrastructure plan Trump proposes. But if Democrats can negotiate a compromise with Trump, then they should help Trump push an infrastructure bill through Congress.

Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) Research shows the EITC - which puts additional money into the pockets of the working poor through tax rebates - is an ideal poverty fighting tool. Democrats have long called for expanding it, and both conservative and liberal think tanks agree with them.

If Democrats want to provide direct assistance to lower and middle-income workers, they should support a Trump bill to test Trump’s level of commitment to implement his EITC and DCSA proposals. Carried interest is a tax loophole that allows partners at hedge funds and private equity funds - generally among the richest Americans - to treat their profits as capital gains rather than ordinary income.

This means fund managers’ profits are taxed at a maximum of 20 percent, as opposed to the 39.6 percent top salaried workers must pay. Even wealthy investors like Warren Buffet and Bill Gross decry the carried interest loophole, and despite the campaign rancour between them, both Trump and Hillary Clinton agreed that carried interest should be taxed as ordinary income.

Democrats should remind Trump that he publicly committed to finally ending this loophole - and should work with him if he takes the initiative to do so. Non-Interventionist Foreign Policy During his campaign Trump bemoaned the $4 trillion the United States spent “trying to topple various people,” arguing that the money would have been better spent on infrastructure.

Since his election, Trump has doubled-down on these views, promising to put forward a non-interventionist foreign policy that focused on confronting Islamic State and other groups.

Democrats such as Sanders in the Senate and Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii) in the House share Trump’s desire to scale back American interventionism.

Even President Obama has gradually developed an aversion to regime change, resisting calls for a no-fly zone in Syria. When Trump inevitably comes under pressure from Republican hawks who want a more interventionist approach, Democrats who share Trump’s skepticism about regime change should help him resist these calls

On policy, Democrats must confront any attempts by Trump to roll back the United States’ commitment to fighting climate change, particularly if Trump decides to go forward with his pledge to pull out of last year’s Paris climate agreement.

If Trump tries to dismantle Obamacare, Democrats must follow up on their plan to block Trump by pointing out the millions Americans who would be left without health insurance and targeting persuadable Republican senators to join them in opposition to the new president.

Finally, Democrats should stand firm in their support for a path to citizenship and resist any radical Trump initiatives to deport millions.