President Trump, at a speech in North Dakota, listed his broad principles for tax reform as simplifying the US tax code and providing tax relief to middle-class Americans, ideas he has been talking about since his 2016 presidential campaign.
“We’re going to get into great detail over the next two weeks, but we’re working on it with Congress now and coming up with very exacting numbers,” President Trump said.
The US stock market rallied earlier this year on hopes of swift tax cuts for businesses under President Trump, but analysts have since reduced expectations for major tax changes this year.
The Republican party is still divided on significant issues, such as whether or not tax cuts should be offset with spending cuts to avoid expanding the federal budget deficit and how deeply to cut the corporate income tax rate.
US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, who accompanied President Trump on the trip, said he expected the administration’s tax plan to be considered by congressional committees later this month.
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“We have a plan. The plan’s being socialised with members,” Secretary Mnuchin told reporters on Air Force One on the return to Washington. “Our expectation is it will be in the (congressional) committees later this month,” he said.
Secretary Mnuchin is one of a six-member Republican team that has been negotiating a tax plan behind closed doors for months, excluding Democrats and producing only a few pages of basic principles. Some members of the team have recently tangled with Trump.
Trump economic adviser Gary Cohn is also a member of the “Big Six” team. According to sources close to the White House and an administration official, Trump has soured on nominating Cohn to lead the Federal Reserve.
That comes, two sources said, since Cohn criticised the president’s response to the violence sparked by a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, last month.
Senator McConnell, leader of the Republicans in the Senate, is also a Big Six team member. Senator McConnell was attacked repeatedly last month by President Trump on Twitter over Congress’s failure to repeal and replace Obamacare.
Democratic Senator Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota flew with President Trump to her home state for the speech and was called on stage by the president along with Republican officials.
“Everybody’s saying, ‘What’s she doing up here?'” President Trump said. “But I’ll tell you what: Good woman, and I think we’ll have your support.”
President Trump is trying to persuade Democrats to support his push to cut tax rates and simplify the tax code this year, a plan critical to bolstering Republicans heading into 2018 midterm elections, but which so far has included few details.
Senator Heitkamp said in a statement that having President Trump visit North Dakota was a good opportunity for the state to explain its priorities.
She said she was “open to working with Republicans and Democrats on comprehensive, permanent tax reform”, but she cautioned that “the devil is in the details.”
The White House plans to put President Trump out on the road on a near-weekly basis this fall to sell his plan, which faces huge obstacles in Congress. Republicans control Congress but have so far been unable to pass Trump’s top legislative priorities.