The head of the House’s Ways and Means Committee isn’t disputing that tax reform will be harder now that President Donald Trump is at war with two members of the rickety GOP Senate majority. But he does want you to know that he and Trump are doing just fine.
“Tax reform is legislatively the biggest challenge of any generation, and it would be a tough fight under every circumstance,” Kevin Brady said Wednesday. “On tax reform, my relationship with President Trump has been excellent; he calls regularly, we talk through key elements of tax reform, trading ideas… For me, he’s been incredibly helpful in this effort.”
In his comments to reporters at a Christian Science Monitor breakfast, Brady pushed his grand vision of a tax reform package that would leave all Americans better off—while shying away from discussing too many specifics of a plan its writers still haven’t released.
One thing Brady offered some sideways clarity on: Republicans’ plan to pay for cuts in part by reducing the cap on money Americans can put in retirement savings accounts annually. President Trump came out strongly against that part of the plan in a Monday tweet.
There will be NO change to your 401(k). This has always been a great and popular middle class tax break that works, and it stays!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 23, 2017
But Brady declined to endorse the president’s pledge, suggesting the GOP plan will include the reductions anyway.
“We think in tax reform we can create incentives for people to save more and save sooner,” Brady said. “We are continuing discussions with the president.”
Brady also wouldn’t say that no Americans would see their income taxes rise if the Republican plan passes, although he did argue that “every American will be better off because of the simpler fairer tax code that lowers those rates and improves their paychecks.”
“The benefits of tax reform is now in keeping more of what you earn,” Brady said. “It’s in getting those paychecks moving again, growing again, which essentially had been stagnated for a decade or more.”
