President Donald Trump said Thursday that he doesn’t believe the rich will end up paying more in taxes once Congress is finished with his package.
He didn’t rule out a tax hike on the rich – something that could earn him Democratic support for the legislation – as reporters attempted to nail down his position this afternoon on a tarmac in Florida. He did not endorse once either.
Trump said, after he was asked to clarify comments he made yesterday about a potential hike on the rich, ‘The wealthy Americans are not my priority. My priority are people in the middle class, and that’s where we’re giving the big tax reduction to.’
‘What’s going to happen is the individual rate coming down will be substantial for the middle class,’ he told a journalist who alternatively asked if the overhaul would reduce taxes on the nation’s richest residents.
President Donald Trump said Thursday that he doesn’t believe the rich will end up paying more in taxes once Congress is finished with his package
The president suddenly claimed yesterday that the richest Americans ‘will not be gaining’ under his new tax plan and even allowed that their tax rates could go up, an apparent change in position.
A blueprint offered by his administration earlier this year called for tax cuts across the board. The president’s legislative affairs director subsequently batted down a proposal to raise taxes on the rich during a conversation with DailyMail.com last month.
Ex-White House strategist Steve Bannon had been pushing a hike on the rich to offset cuts for middle-income Americans before he was booted from the administration.
Trump indicated Wednesday that it was not totally out of the question as he met with a bipartisan group of lawmakers to try to jump start talks on tax reform.
Asked about the contours of the plan, Trump immediately countered Democratic claims that he was planning a massive tax cut for the wealthy.
‘The rich will not be gaining at all with this plan. We’re looking at the middle class and we’re looking for jobs,’ Trump said. ‘I think the wealthy will be pretty much where they are.’
He added: ‘If they have to go higher they’ll go higher, frankly.’
President Donald Trump said the wealthy ‘will not be gaining at all’ from his tax plan on Wednesday
‘We should be able to come together to make government work for the people,’ Trump said in a prepared statement at the gathering with lawmakers.
‘That’s why I was elected, that’s why I ran. And to provide jobs and opportunities to millions of struggling families. This includes tax reform that is pro jobs, pro growth, pro family, and pro-America. It’s very simple. It’s all pro-America.’
Trump said the plan would cut taxes ‘substantially.’
‘It’ll be the largest decrease in the history of our country for the middle class,’ he said.
He went on to claim, ‘The rich will not be gaining at all with this plan. We are looking for the middle class and we are looking for jobs – jobs being the economy. So we´re looking at middle class and we´re looking at jobs.
Trump meets with a bipartisan group of members of Congress, including U.S. Representative Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) (L) and Representative Tom Reed (R-NY) (R), at the White House on Wednesday
‘The rich will not be gaining at all with this plan. We’re looking at the middle class and we’re looking for jobs,’ Trump said. ‘I think the wealthy will be pretty much where they are’
Trump repeated his desire to slash corporate tax rates to 15 per cent.
‘Right now we’re at 35 per cent … and China is at 15 per cent,’ Trump said. ‘They’re at 15 percent and we’re at 35 plus, and that doesn’t work.’
Trump also mentioned repatriating income that companies keep off shore. We have trillions of dollars overseas that we’ll bring back and we’ll bring em back quickly.
Then he made a pitch for infrastructure reform, something he campaigned on that has gone nowhere since. ‘Another bipartisan project that is urgently needed is infrastructure and infrastructure investment,’ Trump said.
It’s time now to build new roads, new bridges, airports, tunnels, highways and railways … all ax our great land
Trump oddly began his remarks by praising an early endorser, New York Republican Rep. Tom Reed. ‘He was there right at the beginning when it wasn’t very fashionable,’ Trump said.
Trump said the plan would ‘make the tax code simple and fair’ as well as ‘encourage companies to hire and grow in America.’