Pence in Texas promises storm recovery aid
Vice president also pitches tax cut plan in Austin speeches
AUSTIN — During a pair of stops in Texas on Wednesday, Vice President Mike Pence was handing out reassurances on both disaster recovery efforts and on the prospects of nationwide tax cuts.
In his first stop, Pence toured the Federal Emergency Management Agency’ s joint field office in north Austin and met with Gov. Greg Abbott. He tried to give Abbott assurances that the federal government is still fully focused on helping Texas rebound from Hurricane Harvey, which made landfall Aug. 25.
Pence cited the fact that 3,600 federal employees are on the ground in Texas to help the recovery as evidence that the Trump administration is fully engaged and has not forget Texas still needs help.
“We’ve made progress,” Pence said. “We understand that we have a long way to go.”
About an hour later, Pence was in downtown Austin making a riskier prediction.
“Before the end of the year,” Pence said, there is going to be an across-the-board tax cut for all Americans.
Pence, speaking at the Republican Governors Association meeting in downtown Austin, also declared that the individual mandate under Obamacare will also be eliminated.
Andin case anyone missed the prediction, Pence repeated later in his speech that the tax cuts would get done this year, even as other Trump initiatives — like building a wall on the border with Mexico or repealing Obamacare entirely — have struggled in Congress.
“Make no mistake about it, President Trump is absolutely committed to passing tax cuts for working family and businesses across America and passing tax cuts this year,” Pence said.
Earlier, Pence and Abbott went to great lengths to assure the public that they are cooperating on Harvey relief. Both took turns heaping praise on each other for the response to Harvey.
“I want to once again applaud the president and the vice president, the entire Cabinet as well as FEMA for working so closely with the state of Texas,” Abbott said.
Moments later, Pence returned the favor.
“We believe that the recovery and rebuilding in the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey will be recorded in history as one of the best if not the best response to a natural disaster in the long storied history of this country,” Pence said.