Next - Taxes & Presidential Elections
The media and public seem to make a big deal about the candidate's stand on taxes. Why is that? The President is in the executive branch. Taxes are decided in the legislative branch. In the past the President may have been able to get a bill to be submitted and get congress to pass it. In today's political chaos/oppose everything environment it is unlikely the President would be able to present anything to do with taxes and have it make it to a vote.
So what's the big deal with a candidate's tax platform?
Three key points:
1) The President has a veto power, meaning that he or she can refuse to sign a bill, and then it does not become law unless Congress overrides it with a 2/3 majority. Because a given party very rarely has a 2/3 majority, veto overrides are quite rare. The president's tax policy is important if you're concerned about the tax policy of the legislature because the President can effectively prevent changes to tax policy. Additionally, the President can use the veto power "offensively" to try and push through an agenda (i.e. pass my tax plan, or I'll veto this spending bill, etc.).
2) The President, by statute, must present an annual budget to the Congress of the amounts he or she thinks is necessary to continue the operations of the federal government. As part of that process the President also suggests how to pay for those things, and calls attention to deficits, etc. The President's budget is not a binding legal document, but it's an influential policy document that is issued every year, and gives the President an unparalleled opportunity to advocate for specific tax policy.
3) It's hard to overstate the leadership role and public voice that the President has. A President can apply public pressure to Congress by advocating for something at length, and Americans will hear about it. Additionally, when a President is elected, there's a tendency for some additional members of his party ot be elected to the Congress; this can change power dynamics in the legislature, and the new members are likely to have been campaigning on the same tax platform as the President. This is how the most recent tax increase occurred in 2012/2013 even though the Congress was divided: a combination of presidential suasion and an intervening election both bringing in new members of the president's party and communicating an electoral "mandate."
So while the President doesn't have a direct role in enacting taxes, the president's position on taxes is very important if one actually wants to see changes in the tax laws as an unwilling president can effectively stop the whole thing, and even a cooperative President casts a long shadow in any debate over the shape of any proposed changes to tax policy.
