Chad’s Morning Brief: Hillary Clinton Continues to Lose Approval and Opinion is Split Over Donald Trump’s Tax Plan

Today on The Chad Hasty Show, Election 2016 continues to dominate the news and we continue to keep an eye in the TX-19 Race.

Biden Outperforms Hillary

According to a new NBC/WSJ Poll, Vice President Joe Biden would give the Republicans a tougher test than Hillary Clinton. Of course, that's just because he isn't currently running. The big news in this poll is the collapse of Hillary Clinton's approval numbers.

Joe Biden hasn't yet announced his plans for a 2016 White House bid, but a new poll shows that he would enter the race as the most popular presidential candidate if he chose to toss his hat into the ring.

According to a new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll, 40 percent of Americans have a positive impression of Biden, while 28 percent have a negative impression (+12).

That's compared to fellow Democrats Bernie Sanders (+10) and Hillary Clinton (-8), and to top-tier GOP candidates Ben Carson (+8), Carly Fiorina (+7) and Donald Trump (-33).

Biden would also out-perform Clinton in hypothetical head-to-head general election matchups against top Republican presidential hopefuls.

If the 2016 election was held today, voters overall say they'd back Clinton over Trump by 10 points (49 percent to 39 percent), but the former secretary of state would be statistically tied with Fiorina (45 percent for Fiorina, compared to 44 percent for Clinton), Carson (46 percent for Carson, compared to 45 percent for Clinton), and former Florida governor Jeb Bush (44 percent for Bush, compared to 45 percent for Clinton).

But Biden would fare better, besting Bush by eight points (48 percent to 40 percent), Fiorina by six points (47 percent to 41 percent), Carson by eight points (49 percent to 41 percent), and Trump by 19 points (56 percent to 35 percent).

In a hypothetical matchup with Donald Trump, Sanders would also handily defeat the real estate mogul, getting 52 percent of the general election vote compared to Trump's 36 percent.

Here is the really good part for Republicans:

Clinton's overall favorability rating now stands at 39 percent positive, 47 percent negative. When Clinton announced her presidential candidacy in April of this year, that rating was 42 percent positive, 42 percent negative.

Voters continue to dislike Hillary Clinton despite her many attempts to reset her image. This is good news and a reason why I think she will be a weaker opponent for the Republicans than previously thought.

Trump Tax Plan Met With Mixed Opinions

The tax plan that Donald Trump rolled out on Monday certainly seems better than the one he teased in an interview with 60 minutes. Still according to FOX News, the plan has been met with several different opinions.

The plan unveiled Monday would eliminate federal income taxes on individuals earning less than $25,000 and married couples earning less than $50,000.

It also would benefit businesses and top earners. It would lower the corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 15 percent and lower the highest income tax rate from 39.6 percent to 25 percent.

"We have an amazing code," Trump said of his tax system. "It will be simple. It will be easy. It will be fair."

Out of the gate, the plan won an endorsement from Americans for Tax Reform President Grover Norquist, who hailed the proposed corporate tax cut.

"This makes us competitive worldwide. Jobs. Jobs. Jobs," he tweeted.

But the Trump campaign also claimed the plan "doesn't add to our debt and deficit," and is "revenue neutral." This was met with skepticism by the nonpartisan Tax Foundation, which is analyzing the proposal.

"It's hard to see how the plan would reach revenue neutrality," Kyle Pomerleau, a foundation economist, told FoxNews.com, citing the array of rate cuts and other measures.

Douglas Holtz-Eakin, president of the American Action Forum and former Congressional Budget Office director, noted tax reform plans typically involve lowering rates and broadening the base. "He's lowering the rate and narrowing the base," he said.

Asked about Trump's claim that the plan is revenue-neutral, Holtz-Eakin quipped: "He claims his hair is real, too."

The billionaire real estate mogul says the country would pay for the tax cuts through a combination of eliminating deductions and loopholes. Trump wants to eliminate the so-called "carried interest loophole" that allows managers of hedge funds and private equity firms to pay a lower tax rate than most individuals. He also wants to allow corporations to bring money held in overseas accounts back to the United States after paying a one-time tax of 10 percent.

Trump said the plan would impact the wealthy by reducing or eliminating most deductions and loopholes.

"In other words, it's going to cost me a fortune," he said at a news conference at his Trump Tower skyscraper in Manhattan.

Pomerleau, though, said Trump's plan likely would cut taxes for low- and high-income filers alike. And the most expensive provision -- for the federal budget -- would likely be the lowering of the top income tax rate, he said.

"That's a big swing from nearly 40 to 25 percent," he said.

What I like about Trump's plan is that it moves the debate to real issues. Not only do I want to hear Trump's tax plan, but I want to hear from Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio and Carly Fiorina. This is what should have been happening all along.

These and many more topics coming up on today’s edition of The Chad Hasty Show. Tune in mornings 8:30-11am on News/Talk 790 KFYO, streaming online at kfyo.com, and now on your iPhone and Android device with the radioPup App. All guest interviews can be heard on our KFYO YouTube page after the show and online at kfyo.com.