President Trump issued grand promises of major tax cuts Tuesday afternoon and suggested that he will be “adjusting” the GOP tax plan in the weeks ahead as Congress aims to write legislation.
“We’ll be adjusting a little bit over the next few weeks to make it even stronger, but I will tell you that it’s become very popular,” Trump said in brief remarks to reporters in the Oval Office. He did not elaborate on what adjustments he sought to the GOP plan.
“People want to see massive tax cuts,” the president said. “I’m giving the largest tax cuts in the history of this country. In addition, there’ll be reform.”
The tax-writing committees in Congress are working toward writing bills based off the joint framework the administration released last month with congressional leadership. However, they don’t aim to produce legislative tex until both chambers vote to adopt budget resolutions. In the meantime, they are negotiating over the different provisions and details of the tax plan.
In his brief comments, Trump also touted that he aims for the legislation to bring back roughly $3 trillion of foreign earnings that U.S. businesses have held outside the country. Unlike figures that Trump has mentioned in the past, the $3 trillion statistic is generally in line with estimates produced by outside groups and Congress’ own experts.
Yet the president veered off course Tuesday in claiming, twice, that the U.S. is the highest-taxed nation in the world. In fact, U.S. taxes are low, as a share of the economy, compared with tax burdens in other countries.
