trump in baltimore main 550x330
trump in baltimore main 550x330

By Zachary Stieber

President Donald Trump said he’s planning a large tax cut for the middle class, which he’ll announce in the next year.

Speaking to House Republicans in Maryland on Sept. 12, Trump promised to make further changes to the country, including additional tax cuts.

“We are working on a tax cut for the middle-income people,” Trump said. “We’ll be announcing it sometime in the next year but it’ll be a very, very substantial tax cut for middle-income folks who work so hard.”

He did not provide any details about the planned tax cut.

President Donald Trump speaks at the 2019 House Republican Conference Member Retreat Dinner in Baltimore on Sept. 12, 2019. (Jose Luis Magana/AP Photo)

Rep. Kevin Brady, a ranking member on the House Committee on Ways and Means, told reporters at the retreat that federal revenues are high and corporate tax income keeps growing because more people are working and their wages are higher.

But he indicated that a middle-class tax cut plan couldn’t be passed unless Republicans take back the House in 2020, noting they lost the majority in 2018.

“We believe that there’s an opportunity for more middle-class tax cuts, and I’ve worked with the White House on the middle-class tax cut plan,” he said.

“There are a number [of], we think, pretty exciting proposals that when President Trump is reelected, and Republicans take back control of the house, we are prepared and ready.”

The proposals would “continue to let people keep more of what they earn” and include making the individual tax cuts passed in 2017 permanent.

Rep. Kevin Brady (R-Texas) in a file photograph. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

Trump in August said that he was considering cutting payroll tax and indexing capital gains to inflation, but White House spokesman Judd Deere told the Wall Street Journal this week that the administration is not considering either proposal any longer.

“President Trump was thoroughly briefed on the complex economic, legal and regulatory issues, and concluded that at this time he does not feel enough of the benefits will go to the middle class,” Deere said in an email.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said this week that the administration was considering tax cuts some time next year.

“I think there’s no question the U.S. economy is in very good shape. As we look around the world, there’s no question that China is slowing, Europe is slowing—the U.S. is the bright spot of the world,” Mnuchin told reporters on Monday.

“And regards to a middle-class tax cut, you know, we’ll be looking at tax cuts 2.0, something that will be something we’ll consider next year. But right now, the economy is in very, very good shape.”

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin answers journalists questions outside the White House on Sept. 9, 2019. (Nicholas Kamm/AFP/Getty Images)

National Economic Council Director Larry Kudlow sounded a similar theme in August during an appearance on Fox News, saying the administration was “looking at” a second round of tax cuts.

Trump said during the 2018 midterm election campaign that he was mulling a tax cut for “middle-income people” but that never came through. Earlier last year, he suggested he wanted to make another tax cut.

Trump’s original tax cuts passed in late 2017, reducing the individual income rate, cutting the corporate income tax rate, and doubling the child tax credit, among other things.

In April, data from tax preparation firm H&R Block showed that Americans paid 25 percent less on taxes on average in 2018.

The tax liability for an average American went down $1,200 in 2018 while average refunds went up just $43, meaning that an average of about $1,157 went to paychecks during the course of a year, according to the data. Since the tax cuts kicked in March 2018, Americans on average received $50 more in a biweekly check.

Mnuchin defended the tax cuts during a congressional hearing in March, saying the legislation boosted growth. Census Bureau data released on Sept. 10 showed over a million households climbed to the middle class between 2016 and 2018 amid a strong economy.

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