Politicians always promise to get you what you want. It helps get them elected and doesn’t cost them anything.

How hard is it to say they will provide low-cost childcare or affordable healthcare? A few breaths and a few dozen words are the politician’s only investment. They never mention the rigorous analysis their proposed benefit will be subjected to. Take childcare, for example. First, the legislative and executive branches must decide whether to consider this topic. If yes, then the subcommittees begin their analysis. What are the benefits, and who will receive them? What are the costs, and where will the funding come from? Then, the legislature must approve the measure, and the executive must sign off. All of this happens if the candidate is serious about the promise and initiates action if elected.

On the other hand, we have the politician who has no intention of honoring their pledge. They simply tell the electorate what they want to hear, knowing it will never happen. Take, for example, Trump’s recent pledges about income taxes. He started with no income taxes on tips, then offered the same treatment for overtime pay. He now questions whether we need income taxes at all, stating that revenue from tariffs will provide all the funding that the government needs. The audience hears, “Wow, my taxes are going down.” In reality, he is replacing a graduate income tax with low-income exemptions with a flat hidden sales tax with no exemptions.

The President doesn’t control income tax legislation, Congress does. However, the President does control tariffs. So, Congress could likely reject tax cuts while the President applies tariffs. The net result to the individual taxpayer would be no change to the income tax structure with the addition of a flat rate sales tax.

Listen to politicians closely; it probably won’t happen if it sounds too good to be true.