Trump’s ‘big announcement’ on tax reform this week won’t be that big
President Trump promised a “big announcement” this week on one of his signature issues -- tax reform.
But if you’re looking for all the long-awaited details of his promised “massive tax cut” for businesses and individuals, you’ll have to wait a while longer.
The White House now says that Trump simply “will be outlining principles for tax reform” during his much-ballyhooed Wednesday event.
That’s a far cry from what Trump promised last week.
“We’ll be having a big announcement on Wednesday having to do with tax reform,” Trump said during a speech at the Treasury Department on Friday.
“The process has begun long ago, but it will formally begin on Wednesday,” he said.
Earlier on Friday, the told the Associated Press in an interview that,”I shouldn’t tell you this, but we’re going to be announcing, probably on Wednesday, tax reform.”
He provided no new details then, but said, “It will be bigger, I believe, than any tax cut ever. Maybe the biggest tax cut we’ve ever had.”
Trump took to Twitter on Saturday to again tout his “big tax reform” announcement this week. Follow Donald J. Trump ✔ @realDonaldTrumpBig TAX REFORM AND TAX REDUCTION will be announced next Wednesday.9:15 AM - 22 Apr 2017 16,545 16,545 Retweets 70,745 70,745 likesBut on Sunday, Mick Mulvaney, director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, downplayed what was coming.
“I think what you’re going to see on Wednesday is some specific governing principles, some guidance,” he said on “Fox News Sunday.”
“Also some indication of what the rates are going to be,” Mulvaney said. “I don’t think you’re going to see something and I don’t think anybody expects us to rollout bill language on Wednesday. In fact, we don’t want to do that.”
Details will be limited to “here are some of the ideas that we like, some of the ideas we don’t like...here are some of the rates we’re talking about,” Mulvaney said.
A White House spokeswoman on Monday said there would be “no further comment beyond what the president has said on this.”
Trump outlined his principles and proposed rates during the campaign, He said he wanted to lower the corporate tax rate to 15% from 35%. And Trump said he wanted to reduce the seven individual tax brackets to four, with the highest rate dropping to 25% from 39.6%.
But House Republicans are working on their own plan that has smaller tax cuts. And it includes a controversial border adjustment tax.
Trump also promised his tax overhaul would be “revenue-neutral,” meaning the cuts would be offset by the elimination of other tax breaks to keep from increasing the budget deficit.
Treasury Secretary Steven T. Mnuchin said Saturday that would be accomplished through the use of controversial “dynamic scoring,” which assumes those cuts would fuel faster economic growth.
“There’s no question we’re looking at reforms that will pay for themselves with growth,” he said during a public question-and-answer session with Christine Lagarde, managing director of the International Monetary Fund.
“Under dynamic scoring this will pay for itself,” he said. Under conventional “static scoring,” which doesn’t incorporate growth estimates, “there will be short-term issues,” he said.
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