Trump’s middle-class tax-cut pledge draws skepticism

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump on Monday said he would propose a tax cut for middleclass Americans “of about 10 percent” next week and that Congress would vote on it soon, but he offered few details and lawmakers did not appear to have any plans to act on the president’s promise.

Speaking to reporters before a campaign trip to Texas, Trump said the White House is looking at putting out a proposal next week, which he said would amount to “a very major tax cut for middle-income people. And if we do that it’ll be sometime just prior to November.

“We’ll do the vote after the election,” Trump said, again suggesting a cut after first floating the idea Saturday.

Trump offered no further details.

Republican congressional leaders, who would need to usher any tax cut through Congress, appeared caught off guard once again by Trump’s comments. Spokespeople for House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., and House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady, R-Texas, referred questions back to the White House.

Legislation enacting such a cut has not been planned on Capitol Hill, and congressional Republicans were privately skeptical that a vote could happen during Congress’ post-election lame-duck session, which already looks like it will be overtaken by a fight over Trump’s border wall.

Congress passed a massive tax-cut plan last year. The law’s biggest change permanently cut the corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 21 percent. It also reduced income-tax rates for income at all levels, while changing the structure of many tax deductions. Nonpartisan analyses of the plan found the law’s individual tax cuts overwhelmingly benefit the wealthy.

While the corporate cut is permanent, the cuts for individuals and families would expire after seven years. Republicans drafted the law that way to limit the law’s projected additions to the deficit, and they have said a later Congress will extend the individual cuts. House Republicans already have approved a bill that would make those tax cuts permanent, but the Senate has not taken up the measure.

That bill is not the same as what Trump promised Monday, as the president said Congress would enact an additional 10 percent tax decrease for the middle class.

Trump’s comments about a new tax cut come barely two weeks ahead of midterm elections that will decide control of Congress. With polls showing the existing tax law is unpopular, Republicans have largely abandoned plans to campaign on it.

Democrats dismissed Trump’s tax-cut announcement.

Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., tweeted, “That middle-class tax cut should have come first, not as an election eve promise.”