Trump injects tax-cut talk in the closing weeks of midterm campaign

With two weeks until the midterm elections in which his party's control of Congress is at stake, President Trump has introduced a new rallying cry on the campaign trial -- the promise of a new middle-class tax cut to be considered by Congress.

"We are going to be putting in a 10 percent tax cut for middle income families," the president said at a rally Monday night in Texas for Ted Cruz's re-election campaign. "It's going to be put in next week. Ten percent tax cut. Kevin Brady is working on it. We have been working on it for a few months. That is in addition to the big tax cuts you have already gotten."

His first mention of a new tax cut came over the weekend, when he told reporters after a rally in Nevada that "we are studying very deeply right now round-the-clock a major tax cut for middle income people," adding that it would happen sometime before November. Since then, he has continued to stress the tax plans in comments with reporters and in political rallies. On Monday, when told Congress was on recess, Mr. Trump said that the tax cut would happen after the election.

But neither the president nor his Republican allies on Capitol Hill have offered details of this plan, and Congress' focus has shifted to its battle over which party will control the House of Representatives and Senate for the remainder of the president's first term. 

Late Tuesday afternoon, the chairman of the House's tax writing committee, Rep. Kevin Brady, R-Texas, released a statement with vague language that only committed to working to develop such a tax cut.