Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin says tax proposal 'is really a jobs bill'

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published 1 May 2017

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Monday that the White House is making steady progress on its tax reform plan. Speaking to a gathering of investors and executives in California, Mnuchin said the plan is focused on helping workers. "This is really a jobs bill," Mnuchin said, explaining that cutting corporate tax rates — a centerpiece of President Trump's financial agenda — will result in less of a financial burden for businesses to pass to workers.

To offset the costs of slashing tax rates, Mnuchin said the White House is banking on economic expansion. "We expect to pay for this through economic growth and eliminating some deductions," he said. Axios notes Mnuchin cautioned that the administration's projections of 3 percent GDP growth would not come to fruition until at least two years after a tax reform bill is signed into law. The GDP growth rate for the first quarter of 2017 was just 0.7 percent.

Mnuchin said that 80 percent of congressional Republicans already support Trump's plan, which the administration hopes to pass before the end of the year. Comprehensive tax reform was last accomplished by former President Ronald Reagan in 1986, after he'd been in office for five and a half years.