Donald Trump says his 'America First' economic plan would trigger a jobs avalanche and roaring growth

Trump is a 'human leech who will bleed the country,' top Democrat asserts

Donald Trump addresses the Economic Club of New York (AP)

Donald Trump has set a bold goal of attaining a 4 per cent annual economic growth rate for the United States and suggested the country may do "substantially better than that” under his economic plan.

He made the promise in a speech to the Economic Club of New York. He took aim at Hillary Clinton saying the only thing “she can offer is a welfare check, that’s about it” and vowed to slash government regulations, including those for environmental protection and food safety.

The startling optimism of the Republican nominee - he pledged also to add 25 million new jobs - is not shared by all economic experts who reject his math. This week the forecast firm Oxford Economics warned that his economic prescriptions, if applied, could shave $1 trillion from US output by 2021 and have a chilling knock-on effect on global growth.

Mr Trump was also the target of some of the harshest criticism from Democrats yet. Harry Reid, the minority leader of the US Senate, on Thursday called the Republican a "spoiled brat" and a "con artist". For good measure, he called him "a human leech who will bleed the country".

Saying that it was time to “start thinking big once again,” Mr Trump said he would “establish a national goal of reaching 4% economic growth”. Departing briefly from the speech on the teleprompter, he went on: “My great economists don't want me to say this, but I think we can do better than that, we do maybe substantially better than that”.

Lamenting what he said was the crumbling state of the country, Mr Trump highlighted a decision by Ford to move small car assembly to Mexico and pointed also at Flint, Michigan, the town that suffered a crisis with lead poisoning in its water supply which he visited on Wednesday.

“It used to be that cars were made in Flint and you couldn’t drink the water in Mexico,” Mr Trump said. “Now cars are made in Mexico and you can’t drink the water in Flint.” However, he made the speech just two days after the Census revealed that last year household income the US bounced back to the tune of 5.2 per cent, an encouraging number seen by some as a vindication of the economic policies of President Barack Obama.

The Trump campaign outlined the main planks of the business mogul's economic plan in a separate note to reporters under the headline, ‘Donald J. Trump’s Economic Policy Package Will Lead To Millions Of Jobs Created And Unbridled Economic Growth’.

It highlighted sharp tax cuts, measures to slash government regulations - including scrapping a clean air regulation aimed at closing down coal-fired power stations issued by President Barack Obama as well as food safety measures - and a tougher trade stance with the world. That would included block the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership, TPP, and renegotiating NAFTA.

Mr Trump ended his speech, which drew only spasmodic polite applause, with a starkly nativist call for American revival.

“American cars will travel the roads, American planes will soar in the skies, and American ships will patrol the seas,” he told his audience in the Waldorf Hotel.

“American steel will send new skyscrapers into the clouds. American hands will rebuild this nation and American energy, harvested from American sources, will power this nation. American workers will be hired to do the job.We will put new American metal into the spine of this country.”

At the heart of the plan is a gamble that steep tax reductions will unleash the economy. His plan promises no business would pay more than 15 percent of its income in taxes, a major drop from the current 35 percent corporate tax rate. He also envisions simplifying the tax brackets for individuals and significantly lower taxes for lower- and middle-income Americans.

Critics, however, insist that the Trump plan, notably the large tax cuts, will add significantly to the US deficit because there will not be the very large burst in US growth that he envisages.

“We reject the pessimism that says our standard of living can no longer rise, and that all that’s left to do is divide up and redistribute our shrinking resources,” Mr Trump declared. “Too many of our leaders have forgotten that it’s their duty to protect the jobs, wages and well-being of American workers before any other consideration.”