TRUMP ON TAXES: ‘I’M DOING THE RIGHT THING’
He calls his overhaul plan ‘revolutionary’
President Trump promised Wednesday to bring “revolutionary change” to the federal tax code that will help the middle class — and not the wealthy.
“They can call me all they want. It’s not going to help,” Trump said of the well-to-do in a speech in Indianapolis. “I’m doing the right thing. And it’s not good for me, believe me.”
What would help both the country and his own legacy, Trump said, is when the economy “takes off like a rocket ship” after business taxes are dramatically cut.
The tax changes he outlined are the basis for a plan jointly agreed to with Republican congressional leaders. But Congress still has to fill in many important details before bringing to a vote legislation Trump hopes to sign before the end of the year.
The information will show whether the plan lives up to Trump’s promises and how much tax cuts would add to the deficit.
“Without sufficient details on how or even if these tax cuts will be fully paid for, this outline is nothing more than a fiscal fantasy,” said Maya MacGuineas, head of the non-partisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget.
Trump seeks a much-needed win as he recovers from Republi- cans’ failure to repeal Obamacare and the defeat of Luther Strange, Trump’s chosen candidate in Tuesday’s Alabama Senate primary.
The tax plan “is a once-in-ageneration opportunity,” Trump said. “I guess it’s probably something I can say I’m very good at. I’ve been waiting for this for a long time.”
Changes include slashing the individual tax rates and reducing the corporate tax rate to “below the average of other industrialized nations.” That, he said, would be “a revolutionary change, and the biggest winners will be the everyday American workers as jobs start pouring into our country, as companies start competing for American labor, and as wages continue to grow.”
On the individual side of the tax code, working poor people could owe no income tax. Filing a return could get much simpler. And there would be a new credit for caring for elderly relatives.
Republicans also want to eliminate two taxes paid entirely by the rich and take away a deduction for state and local taxes that is used most heavily in some of the most wealthy, and Democratdominated, states.
Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., said the framework released Wednesday “at best throws crumbs for some middle-class people.”
“Has the president read his plan?” Schumer asked.
One Democrat who has said he’s willing to listen to Trump’s ideas is Indiana Sen. Joe Donnelly, who flew to Indianapolis with the president on Air Force One.
Donnelly, one of Republicans’ best chances of expanding their narrow Senate majority in next year’s elections, was also one of only three Democratic senators who did not sign onto an August letter sent by Democratic leaders outlining what conditions must be met for the minority to support tax reform.
Most Democrats said they won’t support tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans and won’t vote for an overhaul that adds to the deficit.
Trump said tax reform doesn’t have to be a partisan issue. But he issued a threat to Donnelly, saying if he doesn’t vote for the tax plan, “we will come here and we will cam- paign against him like you wouldn’t believe.”
“I really believe we’re going to have numerous Democrats,” Trump said. “But they’ll only do it if you, the American people, make your voices heard.”
Donnelly said in a statement after the speech that he needs the plan’s details filled in before he can judge whether workers and middle-class families will really benefit.
Robert James, president of the steelworkers union that represents workers at plants — including Carrier Corp. — which have recently laid off workers, said Wednesday that the proposal won’t do anything to keep jobs in the United States.
“I don’t see it,” James said. “I don’t think this is something that benefits the people.”
Trump’s visit to Indiana is his first since going in December to announce a deal with Carrier, a company he talked about frequently on the campaign trail, to keep some jobs in Indiana instead of moving them to Mexico.
Trump chose Indiana for Wednesday’s speech in part to talk about the state’s record of cutting taxes under then- Gov. Mike Pence, who is now his vice president.
“This outline is nothing more than a fiscal fantasy.” Maya MacGuineas of the non-partisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget