President Donald Trump is now leaning on the Republican majorities in the House of Representatives and U.S. Senate to enact his agenda in a "big, beautiful bill" he hopes to sign this summer. But one key sticking point will be an extension of his 2017 tax cuts.
But because the bulk of Trump's tax cuts exclusively benefit the richest Americans, some Republicans have suggested that the administration allow the lowered rates for the rich to expire and revert back to the previous top tax rate in order to pay for other elements of Trump's policy agenda. However, Kevin Hassett, who is the director of the White House's National Economic Council, poured cold water on that idea during a Monday interview with CNN host Kasie Hunt.
"President Trump has made it clear that he doesn't think that that should be on the table," Hassett said. "So it's 100% not on the table to do that."
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Hassett remarked that it was "astonishing" that the tax-related legislation was moving forward at such a high pace, and predicted that it would pass through Congress by "early summer." Hunt politely disagreed with Hassett's assessment, saying his timeline was "very aggressive."
Should Trump eschew a tax hike for the richest Americans, it would be a direct refutation of something that Steve Bannon — his former chief White House strategist — has repeatedly called on him to do. Bannon said that raising taxes on millionaires could help Trump make the case to run for an illegal and unconstitutional third term, and the president himself seemed warm to the idea during his TIME magazine interview.
"I’d be raising them on wealthy to take care of middle class," Trump told TIME.
The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office has estimated that the cost of extending Trump's tax cuts for another ten years could cost roughly $4.6 trillion. This would almost certainly mean that Trump and Republicans' goal of cutting federal spending by $1.5 trillion would be mathematically impossible.
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