http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/07/opinion/campaign-stops/clinton-and-kaine-struggling-on-taxes.html 2016-10-07 14:41:50 Clinton and Kaine, Struggling on Taxes Hillary Clinton and Tim Kaine can win the tax debate. Barack Obama showed how to do it in 2008. === This article is part of the Opinion Today newsletter. You can Hillary Clinton and Tim Kaine continue to be on the short end of the debate over tax policy with Donald Trump and Mike Pence. There is no good reason for it, either. The Democrats have I wrote about What was Kaine’s reply? An intricate five-part answer, which didn’t get around to taxes until item number #5 and then segued to a cute line he already used once before: “The Trump plan is a different plan. It’s a ‘you’re fired’ plan.” Clinton took a similar approach in her first debate with Trump, and it’s the wrong one. Many listeners will emerge from these exchanges believing that Trump wants to cut taxes more for most people than Clinton does. In fact, nearly all of Trump’s tax cut would go to the affluent, while Clinton has proposed a series of ( There is a simple way for Clinton and Kaine to win the tax debate, and Barack Obama showed how to do it when he first ran for president, The first step for Clinton and Kaine is to go beyond the platitudes of their tax proposals so far and offer details — enough to allow independent analysts to score them. The second step is speaking about their plan in the direct language of politics, rather than mixing the more technical language of white papers with jokes about Trump. The next opportunity comes Sunday night, in the second debate between Clinton and Trump. This debate will be a town-hall format, where speaking the language of ordinary people is all the more important.