Trump: GOP to Release ‘Major’ Middle-Income Tax Cut Plan Pre-Midterms

What’s the story?

• President Donald Trump has promised a new middle-income tax cut bill to be rolled out days before the midterm election.

"We are looking at putting in a very major tax cut for middle-income people,” Trump told reporters after a rally in Nevada on Saturday. “And if we do that it'll be sometime just prior to November. We are studying very deeply right now round the clock a major tax cut for middle income people."

Why does it matter?

• As Bloomberg noted, GOP “party leaders were caught off-guard by Trump’s comments” as Congress isn’t in session—and the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act only got passed by being included in a filibuster-proof reconciliation bill.
• However, Steven Mnuchin, the Treasury secretary, said in an interview on Sunday that he’d been working with Rep. Kevin Brady of Texas - the Republican chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee – on developing a tax plan that would “shortly” be released.

“This is specifically focused on the middle class and not beyond that," Mnuchin said.

• Republicans had hoped their 2017 tax cuts would provide a boost for the midterms, but polls are showing that Americans are more likely to disapprove of the tax law than approve of it.
• The president’s remarks came days after the Treasury Department said the U.S. budget deficit grew to $779 billion during Trump’s first full fiscal year in office.

What do you think?

Do you want your reps to support Trump’s “major tax cut for middle-income people”? Should Congress reconvene to try and pass tax-cut legislation? Take action above, then share your thoughts below.

—Josh Herman

(Photo Credit: iStockphoto.com / LPETTET)