WASHINGTON -- The White House plans to negotiate privately on an overhaul of the tax system with Republican leaders in Congress, possibly giving rank-and-file members little if any say over the finished product, a top aide to President Donald Trump said Tuesday.
Gary Cohn, Trump's top economic aide, said the administration doesn't want to engage in prolonged negotiations after the package is made public this fall. Cohn said the goal is to release the overhaul in the first two weeks of September.
"We don't want to be negotiating the tax bill on the floor," Cohn said at a meeting of technology executives.
Republican leaders sounded an optimistic note Tuesday, despite offering no evidence of progress in overcoming their differences.
"Let's not talk about why we can't do something. Let's talk about how fantastic things will be if we get this done," House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., told the National Association of Manufacturers. "Let's not talk about this little tax break or that little tax break. Let's talk about the big picture."
In April, the administration unveiled a one-page proposal that called for huge tax cuts for businesses and a bigger standard tax deduction for middle-income families, lower investment taxes for the wealthy and an end to the federal estate tax for the super wealthy -- like the president and his family.
The plan also calls for eliminating the federal deduction for state and local taxes, a proposal opposed by Democrats and some Republicans in states like New York, New Jersey and California.
Ryan said he is confident Congress can pass a tax package by the end of the year, despite political divisions among Republicans and a crowded legislative agenda for Congress.
He acknowledged it won't be easy. But he cautioned against settling for something less than a complete overhaul of the tax system.
House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi's office released a statement calling Ryan's remarks "minor platitudes for hard-working Americans" that were short on specifics.
It has been about a year since Ryan and other House Republicans released a blueprint for how they would overhaul the tax code. Yet Ryan didn't provide any additional information about his tax plan or the state of negotiations among White House officials and Republican leaders in Congress.
Vice President Mike Pence, who addressed the manufacturers before Ryan, promised "the largest tax cut since the days of Ronald Reagan."
"We'll cut taxes across the board for working families, small businesses and family farms. We'll simplify the tax code by cutting seven brackets down to three," Pence said. "We'll eliminate the alternative minimum tax, end almost every deduction and under President Donald Trump we'll repeal the death tax once and for all."
Information for this article was contributed by Kenneth Thomas of The Associated Press.
A Section on 06/21/2017