Trump says rich might pay more in taxes, talks with Democrats
WASHINGTON, (Reuters) President Donald Trump said yesterday that taxes on rich Americans might rise, as he pursues a tax code overhaul and reaches out to both Democrats and Republicans in a push to win support for a plan still far from complete.
As Trump prepared to host the two top congressional Democrats at a White House dinner, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told Fox News that the administration’s tax cuts could be paid for through economic growth.
The White House and the Republican-led Congress have not put forth a detailed tax plan, despite months of high-level talks that had until recent days excluded Democrats.
House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan said an outline of a plan would be unveiled during the work week beginning Sept. 25, with congressional tax-writing committees crafting detailed legislation in the subsequent weeks.
Mnuchin told Fox the administration would use its own economic assumptions to gauge the impact of its tax cuts on the federal budget deficit and the $20 trillion national debt, a key issue in Washington’s intensifying tax debate.
“It will be revenue neutral under our growth assumptions,” Mnuchin said. The administration believes that tax cuts will lead to much faster growth than do congressional analysts or private forecasters.
“So, we can pay for these tax cuts with economic growth,” he added.
As for taxing the rich, Trump said after a meeting with lawmakers that the wealthy “will not be gaining at all with this plan . ... If they have to go higher, they’ll go higher, frankly.”
Further details were not immediately available from the White House. SAO PAULO, (Reuters) - Brazil’s federal police yesterday arrested the chief executive of JBS SA, the world’s No. 1 meatpacker, accusing him of insider trading ahead of a plea bargain he signed this year whose disclosure pummeled the company’s stock.
Wesley Batista, who has been at the helm of JBS since 2011, was detained under an arrest warrant against him and his younger brother, Joesley, for suspected insider trading. The billionaires, both in their mid-40s, control 42 percent of JBS.
The Batista brothers’ lawyer, Pierpaolo Bottini, called the insider trading allegations and the arrest of the meatpaker’s CEO “unjust, absurd and regrettable.” If convicted, the Batistas may be the first people in Brazil jailed for insider trading.
JBS shares rose 2.4 percent, erasing early losses, on optimism that Wesley Batista’s arrest will accelerate his ouster as chief executive.