Monday, September 25, 2017
Associated Press
MORRISTOWN, N.J.
President Donald Trump is promising “the largest tax cut in the history of our country” that will slash rates for the middle class and corporations to spark economic growth and jobs.
Trump said Sunday his “primary focus” is the tax overhaul rather than last-ditch efforts to bring a repeal of the Obama health care program. The health care legislation brought forward by Republicans teetered near failure over the weekend, though he said “eventually we will win on that.”
Trump said the tax plan that the White House and congressional Republicans have been working on for months, for the first major overhaul of the tax system in three decades, is “totally finalized.” He was speaking on the tarmac at the Morristown Municipal Airport.
Trump’s details weren’t firm. He said “I hope” the top corporate tax rate will be cut to 15 percent from the current 35 percent. House Speaker Paul Ryan has said a 15 percent rate is impractically low, with a rate somewhere in the low- to mid-20 percent range more viable to avoid blowing out the deficit.
The rate is “going to be substantially lower so we bring jobs back into our country,” Trump said.
He also said, “We think we’re going to bring the individual rate to 10 percent or 12 percent, much lower than it is right now.” He did not say whether the tax rate for the wealthiest Americans, now at 39.6 percent, would be cut, as some Republicans have advocated.