Donald Trump unveiled details of his new economic plan in Detroit on Monday, a few days after Hillary Clinton touted her plan to create jobs in a short speech delivered in a suburb north of Denver.  

Trump’s plan is focused on reforming the U.S. tax code to leave more money in the hands of job creators (businesses and the executives who lead them) and everyday Americans who spend their money driving the economy. It’s basically trickle-down economics with a focus on tax reform.

Clinton wants a major investment in public infrastructure in a plan that would be “the boldest since Eisenhower built the interstate highway system.” That’s more like the government-led stimulus programs that helped pull America out of the Great Depression and Great Recession – think New Deal of 1933 and the Economic Stimulus Act of 2008.

Both plans have their critics and supporters, and both plans are shy on details.

Tim Wigley is a Trump supporter and president of the Western Energy Alliance, a regional trade association for 400 oil and gas companies throughout the Rocky Mountain West. Wigley praised Trump’s dedication to the energy industry inside the United States, and said that although it wasn’t mentioned specifically in his speech on Monday, Trump plans to promote and develop U.S. natural resources.

“This is my 36th year of being in politics in some form or another … I don’t think I’ve ever seen a contrast that is quite as stark as I’ve seen in this campaign,” Wigley said.

He said Trump’s plan to cut the corporate tax rate – as high as 35 percent for some companies – to 15 percent will help bring corporations home to America and bring jobs with them.

“You will see an explosion in growth,” he said. “You’ll see that money come back to the United States and create jobs.”

Gene Sperling, a director of economic policy under presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, said Trump’s plan was one of the “most regressive, unfair tax cut plans” he’s ever seen.

Sperling said the plan released Monday is “an income inequality plan … doubled down on giving more tax cuts to the 1 percent than the overall majority of Americans.”

Trump, however, said his tax bracket plan – reducing the number from seven income brackets to three – would “make America grow again.”

“In the days ahead we will provide more details on this plan and how it will help you and more of your family,” Trump said. “It will provide night-and-day contrast to the job-killing, tax-raising, poverty-inducing Obama, Clinton agenda.”

Trump said the new brackets would be 12 percent, 25 percent and 33 percent, the same as a plan put forward by House Republicans. He pledged to get rid of the inheritance tax and close a loophole allowing certain partnerships to avoid paying a higher tax rate by using a “carried interest deduction.” Sperling says Trump’s plan to close the loophole is “just smoke and mirrors” because the plan would allow many companies now using the deduction to access an even lower tax rate.

That was in reference to Trump’s pledge to reduce the overall corporate tax rate to 15 percent.

Trump and others have attacked Clinton’s plan as spending money the U.S. doesn’t have.

Gov. John Hickenlooper, an entrepreneur turned politician, praised Clinton’s plan, however. The governor said investment in infrastructure, such as the taxpayer-funded FasTracks that has resulted in 122 miles of light rail throughout the metro area and the multi-billion dollar construction of the new Denver International Airport, have paid off in Colorado.

“We recognize that those investments have had a lot to do with other job creation in Colorado,” Hickenlooper said. “It’s the businesses that they attract.”

Critics of FasTracks and DIA have pointed to billions of dollars in cost overruns and accusations of shady dealings.

Jacob Leibenluft, senior policy advisor for Clinton’s campaign, said in an email to The Gazette that Clinton’s economic policy would “ensure that projects are selected based on impact, not politics, and she would increase accountability and cut red tape, so that taxpayers get more bang for their buck for every dollar they invest in infrastructure.”

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Contact Megan Schrader: 286-0644

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Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump delivers an economic policy speech to the Detroit Economic Club, Monday, Aug. 8, 2016, in Detroit. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Evan Vucci