The “Mnuchin Rule” is no more, because math is hard. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin used to say that President Trump’s tax priorities would include "no absolute tax cut for the upper class.” But yesterday, he explained, “when you're cutting taxes across the board, it's very hard not to give tax cuts to the wealthy with tax cuts to the middle class… The math, given how much you are collecting, is just hard to do.”
And about that $4000 boost in middle-class incomes: That’s hard too. TPC’s Howard Gleckman takes a look at the claims by White House CEA chair Kevin Hassett that a tax rate cut would result in big raises for US workers. In short: They won’t. The CEA paper implies that workers would see $3 in added income for every $1 in tax rate cuts. That math again.
Also hard: Dealing with SALT. Trump’s tax plan would repeal the state and local tax deduction for individuals—now taken by about 44 million people—but corporations would still be able to take it. The deduction remains a sticking point among Republicans. Democrats may force a vote on the Senate floor on whether to repeal the deduction. Repeal would raise about $1.3 trillion over 10 years.
The timing is no piece of cake, either. GOP leaders have expressed different tax overhaul timelines, ranging from November to Christmas to early 2018. Senator John Thune joins the later-than-sooner crowd, noting that “complicated rules and procedures in his chamber could delay a tax bill until 2018.” Mnuchin upped the ante, warning that if Congress does not pass a tax overhaul, the stock market will tank.
The plan is not easy for the public to love, either. A new CNN poll finds that only 34 percent of those surveyed support the plan, while 52 percent oppose it. The differences tend to fall along partisan lines.
As for that agreement on Affordable Care act cost-share reduction payments… That deal forged between Republican Senator Lamar Alexander and Democrat Patty Murray doesn’t work for President Trump, who said he “can never support bailing out [insurance companies] who have made a fortune w/ [the ACA].” Alexander explained that earlier this week “Trump completely engineered the plan that we announced.”
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