Former Chairman of the Federal Reserve Ben Bernanke complimented a proposed border adjustment tax, but noted that "it's been sold in kind of a bad way" by Republicans.
"It's not really about trade. It's not really about imports and exports. It's about where revenue's taxed. The idea is revenues should be taxed where it's earned," he said on CNBC's "Squawk Box" Monday. He added that it has "a lot of appeal in many ways," noting that it would end tax incentives for moving corporate headquarters overseas and making it easier to tell were profits came from.
Bernanke suggested that the dollar would have to rise in value in order to offset the drawbacks of the tax plan.
"If we were starting to design the system from scratch this would make a lot of sense and it would not have those implications you talk about," Bernanke said. "It's very interesting in principle but it's hard to get from here to there."
Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., came out in support of the Trump's tax plan last week, praising it for being "bold," cutting taxes and not playing games.
"It does cut taxes. It take less money. It sends less money to the federal government. I say, if you want to defeat the beast, you've got to starve the beast. That means don't send more money to Washington," he told CBS Philadelphia radio host Dom Giordano.
Paul also predicted that many in his party would not support the plan.
"I will tell you that his opponents will be largely establishment Republicans. Establishment Republicans want revenue neutral. Revenue neutral means that some people get a tax cut, if you're a buddy of government and you have a good lobbyist, you get a tax cut and if you don't, your taxes will go up. But, the net effect on the economy is zero. A tax cut, on the other hand, is something that will stimulate economy because it will leave, hopefully, trillions of dollars in the hands of those who earned it."
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