President Trump on Tuesday repeated a false claim that the U.S. is the highest taxed nation in the world.
“The people of this country want tax cuts, they want lower taxes. We’re the highest taxed nation in the world,” Trump said Tuesday, according to pool reports.
Trump was asked about whether his dispute with Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) would affect the GOP’s tax-reform efforts.
Trump has made the same claim several times in the past.
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Last month, Trump tweeted that the U.S. was the highest taxed nation in the world, something he said “will change.”
Data compiled in 2015 by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, however, shows the U.S. behind such countries as the United Kingdom, Germany and France in terms of taxes.
White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders was asked last week why Trump continues to repeat this claim.
“I believe there are specific sectors within the country that are among the highest taxed in the world, and we’ll be happy to provide that data to you,” Sanders said during a press briefing last week.
Trump has been pushing tax reform in recent weeks. He can only afford to lose two GOP senators on the tax bill, and some Republicans worry the president’s spat with Corker will stunt momentum behind tax reform.
Trump and GOP leaders late last month pitched a framework as part of their tax reform efforts, with the hopes of full legislative text emerging in coming weeks.
Democrats largely slammed the proposal, which seeks to lower the top rate and raise the bottom rate, double the standard deduction and nix many loopholes, with an exception for mortgage and charity.
The tax framework put forward by the White House and congressional GOP leaders would also reduce the number of individual tax brackets, slash tax rates for businesses and move the U.S. toward a “territorial” tax system that exempts American companies’ foreign earnings.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) penned an op-ed Tuesday calling for Democrats to join the GOP in its push for tax reform. In the piece, McConnell argued that the tax-reform effort is promoting the same ideas Democrats used to back before Trump assumed office.