How Hard Is Trump Going to Work for the Tax Plan?

There was a noticeable absence of anyone from the Trump administration on the five main Sunday talk shows. President Donald Trump himself was just two days into his marathon foreign trip to Asia, but there seemed to be no eagerness on the part of the White House or the rest of the administration to talk about the previous week’s developments in the special counsel investigation, which revealed two indictments and a guilty plea.

Which meant consequently that there was also no one from the White House to talk about the newly released details of the Republican tax reform proposal, which the House GOP unveiled last Thursday. The exception was Vice President Mike Pence, who appeared on Fox News’s business-focused Sunday Morning Futures. Pence told host Maria Bartiromo “there will be changes” to the House proposal as the legislative process plays out in both houses of Congress.

Among some of the changes Pence articulated? A move away from the proposed five-year phasing in of the 20-percent corporate income tax, which tax writers in Congress have been reportedly kicking around. Bartiromo pressed Pence on whether this cut should kick in immediately or in 2022, as the House prefers. “I think we believe it has to happen immediately, and we’re going to drive and drive hard,” Pence answered.

The vice president also declined to endorse a temporary rate increase of sorts on Americans making more than $1 million—what’s been called a “hidden bracket” of 45.6 percent. Defenders of the bill point out the short-term rate, described more precisely as a surcharge, is an effective “claw-back” of the benefit enjoyed by all taxpayers, most notably those in the lowest bracket, which does not tax the first $45,000 earned. Some estimates suggest those paying the hidden rate will end up paying slightly less in taxes under the fullness of the reform plan. Bartiromo called it a “tax increase,” and Pence didn’t give much of a fight.

“We think the House bill is a great start,” he added. “But at the end of the day the American people can be confident that President Trump is going to drive this legislation forward. . . . We’re going to make sure that we have tax relief across the board for working families and small businesses, family farmers and ranchers. And we’re going to make sure that while it’s not going to necessarily lower taxes on upper-income Americans, we’re going to make sure that it deals with upper-income Americans in a fair and equitable way.”