White House Scaling Back Goals for Business Tax Cuts
To ensure the support of influential lawmakers in both chambers of Congress, the two officials are meeting weekly to discuss the bill’s intricacies in a group being referred to as the Big Six: House Speaker Paul D. Ryan; Kevin Brady, the chairman of the House Ways
and Means Committee; Mitch McConnell, the Senate majority leader; and Orrin G. Hatch, the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee.
By KATE KELLY and ALAN RAPPEPORTJULY 19, 2017
With President Trump’s promise to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act nearly dead, administration officials are scaling back their ambitions to
cut the corporate tax rate sharply, apparently taking a more pragmatic approach as they scramble to secure a major legislative victory this year.
In recent days, discussions among Mr. Trump’s economic advisers over promised tax cuts for corporations
and individuals have taken on new urgency, a person who has been briefed on the matter said.
A White House spokeswoman, Natalie Strom, said: “Discussions between the White House and Congress are progressing in a very positive direction.
Steven Mnuchin, the Treasury secretary, and Gary D. Cohn, the director of the National Economic Council, are communicating
daily over the tax proposal with the aim of drafting a bill to be introduced on the House floor in early September.
But now the proposed business tax rate is “drifting higher,” this person said, and may end up in the low 20 percent range.