Democratic lawmaker calls Trump a 'con man'

Democratic lawmaker Gregory Meeks has labelled US President Donald Trump a "con man" for his support to the newly-passed Republican tax bill.

"There is a bait-and-switch… with how this President has governed over the last year. He baits and then switches. He says one thing and there's really a different result," Meeks told CNN on Wednesday.

"I've said all along that this President is a con man… he gives you something that might sound sweet, but you know it's gonna be bitter in the end," he said.

"You've got to pay extra attention to what he does because he's a bait-and-switch con man," New York Representative Meeks said, pointing towards the tax bill.

He expressed concern that the businessman-turned-President was advertising a seemingly well thought out plan aimed at putting more money in the hands of Republican wealthy donors and stripping benefits from the average Americans.

"Eighty per cent of the tax cuts that (are) coming is going to go to the richest one per cent. And that tax cut expires in ten years, whereas it does not expire for the major corporations," he said.

The GOP tax bill, which Trump signed into law last week, lowers the top individual tax rate from 39.6 per cent to 37 per cent and slashes the corporate tax rate from 35 per cent to 21 per cent. The individual tax cuts will expire.

The legislation also increases the exemption amounts for the individual alternative minimum tax and the estate tax and eliminates the Obamacare individual mandate, as well as limiting deductions for state, local and property taxes.

Multiple recent polls indicated the GOP tax bill was unpopular among the US public, but Trump defended the bill, claiming "insider polls" show support for the bill is "strong".

The Joint Committee on Taxation said last week that the tax bill won't fully pay for itself through economic growth and would cost $1.07 trillion over the next 10 years.

--IANS

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