The White House on Thursday revealed the tax priorities that President Donald Trump detailed to Republican members of Congress, including no taxes on tips, overtime, or seniors’ social security.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt shared Trump’s tax agenda with reporters shortly after he presented his priorities to Republican members of Congress hours earlier.
Leavitt listed some of Trump’s key campaign promises, including eliminating taxes on tips, overtime, and social security for seniors, renewing his 2017 tax cuts, and a number of other policy plans.
Leavitt also noted that Trump wants an adjustment to the State and Local Tax (SALT) deduction cap, tax cuts for products made in America, an end to “all the special tax breaks for billionaire sports team owners,” and an end to “the carried interest tax deduction loophole.”
“This will be the largest tax cut in history for middle-class working Americans. The president is committed to working with Congress to get this done,” she said.
Trump met with Republicans in Congress about a budget resolution at the White House after attending the National Prayer Breakfast earlier Thursday. The meeting comes after he told a crowd in Las Vegas, Nevada, which has a booming service industry where many rely on tips for a living, that working with Congress on tax cuts is near the top of his priorities, as Breitbart News noted:
Last year, we campaigned across the country on a pledge — that I’m sure most of you didn’t hear too much about — pledged to take the Trump tax cuts and make them permanent, and that’s exactly what we’re doing. In the coming weeks, I’ll be working with Congress to get a bill on my desk that cuts taxes for workers, families, small businesses, and very importantly, keeps my promise for a thing called — and I know you didn’t hear anything about this, and I’m sure it had no influence on the state, the fact that we won this crazy massive majority, the state that hadn’t been won by a Republican in decades — but, I’m sure you haven’t heard, we’re going to get it for you — no tax on tips.
Republicans will likely use the reconciliation process to enact Trump’s legislative agenda. However, it remains to be seen whether border security and tax reform will be included in a single reconciliation bill.
Trump told House Republicans at a retreat in Doral, Florida, last month he would work with Congress on border security in a reconciliation package, Fox News reported:
“In the coming weeks, I’m looking forward to working with Congress on a reconciliation bill that financially takes care of our plan to totally and permanently restore the sovereign border of the United States once and for all,” Trump said. “This should include full funding for a record increase in border security personnel and retention bonuses for ICE and border patrol.”
Trump also said he was open to the priorities being bundled together or worked on separately.
“We don’t want to get hung up on the budget process … whether it’s one bill, two bills, I don’t care,” Trump said. “They’re going to work it out one way or the other. But the bottom line, the end result, is going to be the same.”
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