The White House struggled on Thursday to defend its new tax plan against criticism that it would help the rich at the expense of lower classes, as Republicans in Congress prepared to move ahead with actual legislation.
A day after President Donald Trump unveiled the plan and called it “a miracle for the middle class,” White House economic adviser Gary Cohn said he could not guarantee that all middle-class Americans would see their tax bills decline.
The Trump plan’s tax cuts for businesses and individuals would reduce federal revenues by more than $5 trillion over a decade, according to independent analysts.
The United States is already $20 trillion in debt and the Republican plan, while very specific on tax cuts, provided few details on how to offset the federal revenues that would be lost if the U.S. Congress were to approve Trump’s proposals.
It calls for slashing the corporate tax rate to 20 percent from 35 percent, the small business rate to 25 percent from 39.6 percent and the top individual rate to 35 percent from 39.6 percent. The Trump administration did not assign income levels to their proposed tax brackets.
Republicans are aiming to have tax reform signed into law before January. Independent analysts believe they could enact legislation sometime in the first half of 2018.
Reference: Reuters
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