WASHINGTON -- The White House this week will offer "specific governing principles" for its tax plan along with indications of what new rates would be, but a complete proposal probably won't be ready until June, President Donald Trump's budget director said Sunday.
Trump on Saturday promised news about his tax plan this Wednesday, tweeting that a "big tax reform and tax reduction will be announced," capitalizing some of the words for emphasis.
"I don't think anybody expects us to roll out bill language on Wednesday. In fact, we don't want to do that," Mick Mulvaney, director of the Office of Management and Budget, said on Fox News Sunday. "What you're going to see on Wednesday for the first time is, here's what our principles are, here are some of the ideas that we like, some of the ideas we don't like, and we can talk about that more if you want to."
Asked about his previous comments that the full plan with bill language probably won't be released until June, Mulvaney said "that's still probably fair." The administration has started working with House and Senate committees "as we try and build some momentum for this tax plan," he said.
[PRESIDENT TRUMP: Timeline, appointments, executive orders + guide to actions in first 100 days]
Mulvaney said the administration hasn't decided whether its plan will be revenue-neutral, which would be needed to meet the criteria set by lawmakers to make tax changes permanent, or will add to the national debt.
"You can either have a small tax cut that's permanent, or a large tax cut that is short-term," Mulvaney said. "I don't think we decided that. But you'll know more on Wednesday."
Although Trump has promised the biggest tax cut in U.S. history, some economists say that cannot be achieved without adding trillions of dollars in federal debt. A long-term tax cut or a permanent change to the tax code would have to be revenue-neutral to go through the budget reconciliation process, which would prevent a filibuster in the Senate, where Republicans hold 52 seats.
Trump has said cutting taxes will grow the economy, lead to more hiring and bring trillions of dollars back into the U.S. that companies are now holding overseas to avoid taxation. Among the administration's aims are to simplify the tax code for individuals and families, lower corporate tax rates and provide a major tax cut for the middle class.
During the campaign, Trump proposed to reduce the corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 15 percent. He also proposed reducing the seven personal income tax brackets to three, with rates of 12 percent, 25 percent and 33 percent based on income levels. The proposal would also increase the standard tax deduction for individuals and married couples filing jointly.
He also wants to eliminate the estate tax and the alternative-minimum tax. Trump has also proposed some sort of "reciprocity" tax that would hit the imports of countries that have taxes or tariffs against U.S. exports.
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and other senior officials have signaled that the administration is more concerned about growth and job creation than about revenue neutrality and will rely on so-called dynamic scoring in crafting its changes.
Under dynamic scoring, a tax plan's revenue effects are considered in the context of the plan's effect on economic growth and consumer well-being. Economists disagree on the best ways to predict such effects, but Mnuchin has repeatedly emphasized its importance to the Trump plan.
"Some of the lowering in rates is going to be offset by less deductions and simpler taxes," Mnuchin said Saturday. "But the majority of it will be made up" by dynamic scoring.
Mnuchin has said that when the government accounts for the economic growth that would occur because of tax changes, a tax overhaul "will pay" for itself.
Funding the wall
Trump also hopes to use a $1 trillion spending bill this week to promote his promised border wall.
White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus said Sunday on NBC's Meet the Press that he believes the spending bill will include "something satisfactory" that reflects plans to build a wall. The legislation would keep the government running through Sept. 30, the end of the budget year.
"We expect the priorities of the president to be reflected," Priebus said, citing ongoing talks with the House and the Senate. He added that "it'll be enough in the negotiation to move forward either with construction or the planning ... to get going on the border wall and border security."
Mulvaney, noting Saturday's Earth Day rallies in support of science and scientific research, said people who protested cuts in agencies such as the National Institutes of Health needed to understand that the Trump administration was trying to "reprioritize" toward a border wall and a stronger national defense.
"What we said is that defending the nation, including securing the southern border, is the primary function of this government," Mulvaney said. "It should be a priority of this government under this administration, and funding for the National Institutes of Health needs to take a backseat for that."
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., described a border wall as "immoral" and "expensive" when asked if there were any scenario in which Democrats would agree to money for a wall to avoid a government shutdown. Mulvaney and Priebus both said Sunday that nobody in Washington wants a shutdown, which will happen if Congress cannot pass the spending bill.
However, "Democrats do not support the wall," Pelosi said, speaking on NBC. "Republicans on the border states do not support the wall."
Pelosi argued that when Trump during his campaign promised to build a wall, he never indicated he would "pass billions of dollars of cost of the wall on to the taxpayer."
Trump disputed that in a Sunday tweet, writing, "Eventually, but at a later date so we can get started early, Mexico will be paying, in some form, for the badly needed border wall."
Trump has repeatedly asserted that Mexico will pay for the wall. He said Sunday on Twitter that the border wall is necessary to stop the flow of drugs and "very bad" gang members.
At the same time, the administration has softened its stance on the children whose parents are illegal migrants and who have grown up in the United States.
"We're not targeting them," Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly said of such children in an interview on CNN's State of the Union.
"These people are caught between the law," Kelly said, adding that "the president obviously is sympathetic."
In a separate interview on ABC's This Week, Attorney General Jeff Sessions affirmed that the federal government did not "have the ability to round up everybody."
"There's no doubt the president has sympathy for young people who were brought here at early ages," he said. The administration's "first and strongest priority," Sessions added, was the "criminal element."
Sessions argued Sunday that the U.S. needs a more exacting immigration policy.
"Many of these are involved in criminal enterprises, hauling drugs and that kind of thing," he said. "We need to end that. And then we've got to wrestle with what to do about people who have been here a long time."
Marking 100 days
Time is on the minds of White House staff members who are planning a packed week of activities leading up to Saturday, Trump's 100th day in office.
Trump will sign executive orders on energy and rural policies, meet with the president of Argentina and travel to Atlanta for a National Rifle Association event. He has also announced plans for a rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday.
Priebus said Trump also hopes this week to revive an effort by House Republicans to replace the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, popularly called Obamacare. But he insisted it didn't make much difference to the White House whether the House votes next "Friday or Saturday or Monday."
"It's a marathon, not a sprint," he said.
Trump tweeted a warning at Democrats on Sunday, saying: "ObamaCare is in serious trouble. The Dems need big money to keep it going -- otherwise it dies far sooner than anyone would have thought."
Although Trump has said the 100-day marker for his presidency is "artificial," his aides are touting the progress on the litany of agenda items Trump promised to fulfill.
"What I think folks don't realize is that we've signed more legislation into law in the first 100 days than anybody in the last 50 years," Mulvaney said. "We put up more executive orders than any previous administration in the last 50 years. And importantly, these are not creating laws. Most of these are laws and regulations getting rid of other laws. Regulations getting rid of other regulations."
Mulvaney also noted Trump's appointment of Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court, saying: "No president has ever had a Supreme Court justice confirmed in 100 days. We're talking about historic accomplishments by this administration in the first 100 days."
Information for this article was contributed by Mark Niquette, Lynnley Browning and Rich Miller of Bloomberg News; by Catherine Lucey and Hope Yen of The Associated Press; by Noah Weiland of The New York Times; and by Damian Paletta of The Washington Post.
A Section on 04/24/2017