President Trump said Saturday that he would approve a “major middle income tax cut” if Republicans keep the Senate and presidency and take back the House in next year’s elections.
“If Republicans take back the House, and keep the Senate and Presidency, one of our first acts will be to approve a major middle income Tax Cut!” Trump tweeted Saturday morning. “Democrats only want to raise your taxes!”
Trump did not elaborate on any details for his proposed tax cut. The Hill has reached out to the White House for comment.{mosads}
White House adviser Larry Kudlow said Thursday that the administration was looking at a “tax cuts 2.0” package to create long-term economic improvement but added that it wasn’t looking at near-term cuts.
“The idea of some short-term payroll tax cut fix — it doesn’t work. It never works. It has no lasting impact,” he said.
He added that tax cuts such as lower individual tax rates, lower capital gains rates, changes for noncorporate businesses and relief for residents of high-tax states could be rolled out before the 2020 election.
Trump’s Saturday overture comes as the latest shift in a series of proposals regarding his interest in a set of tax cuts. The president on Wednesday backtracked on a set of tax cuts he had just one day earlier said the White House was discussing.
“I’m not looking at a tax cut now,” he told reporters before leaving the White House to travel to Kentucky. “We don’t need it. We have a strong economy.”
He had said Tuesday that he was looking at a temporary payroll tax cut and floated indexing capital gains to inflation, lowering the tax burden for investors.
On Wednesday, Trump moved away from that position, saying he’s not looking to make the change to capital gains taxes because doing so is “probably better” for high-income earners and he wants to help the middle class.
Trump’s yo-yo on taxes this week comes amid warning signs of a possible recession on the horizon. The president and his aides have publicly dismissed the possibility that a recession is nearing, but The Washington Post and The New York Times reported early this week that White House officials were looking at the payroll tax cut in an effort to counter an economic slowdown.
Naomi Jagoda contributed to this report, which was updated at 1:03 p.m.