White House Director of the Office of Management and Budget Mick Mulvaney said anyone who claims to know how, or if, President Trump’s tax cut will benefit wealthy Americans is “lying to you” because the bill isn’t finished.
“Keep in mind, what we introduced this week, Jake, was the framework, was sort of the basic agreement between the White House and House and Senate leadership,” Mulvaney told CNN anchor Jake Tapper.
“What’s missing from that, and it’s not being hidden, it just doesn’t exist yet, are things like details on the deductions, details on the brackets,” Mulvaney said. “It is impossible to sit down and say, this will be the impact on this wage earner or this family at this particular time. What assumptions are you going to make about the state and local tax deduction removal? What assumptions are you going to make about where the brackets are set? These are things that get done during the ordinary course of business in Congress, which I understand will start in the House this week.”
The administration’s shift to passing some kind of tax reform comes after a spring and summer in which the administration and Congress made numerous attempts at healthcare reform, all of them failing.
Mulvaney also defended the administration’s response and handling of the unfolding crisis in Puerto Rico, as the citizens on that island are still trying to recover from two consecutive devastating hurricanes.
“We’ve given Puerto Rico more tools that we’ve brought to bear because we had to, because of its location and scope of the devastation, ” Mulvaney said.
“I think it’s unfair to say that we haven’t done everything that we can, because we’ve done everything that we can and will continue to do so. It’s unfortunate that the Puerto Rico mayor — excuse me, the San Juan mayor — wants to go the against the grain. We would love to have us on the same team.”
