Will there really be a middle-class tax cut like President Trump promised?
There’s a pretty good chance of it, says Forbes Chairman and Editor-in-Chief Steve Forbes in this clip — even if the “Big Six” officials negotiating the package — Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, White House Chief Economic Advisor Gary Cohn, Speaker of the House Paul Ryan, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, House Ways and Means Chairman Kevin Brady of Texas and Senator Orrin Hatch of Utah — don’t necessarily see eye to eye.
One of the most contentious issue is how much tax cuts can the government afford to make. Cut too deep and the national debt goes higher through lack of revenue to the federal government. As President Trump says, a big factor in arguing for cuts is economic growth — more cuts equal more growth in the American economy, and that eventually equals more revenue for the government. The real question is whether top earners will see substantial savings.
President Trump has said he doesn’t want to cut taxes for the rich, while people like House Ways and Means Chairman Kevin Brady and Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky say they want to see tax cuts across the board — one of the reasons why is that 96 percent of individual taxes are paid by people earning $75,000 per year and up.
If people are earning less than that, neither a tax cut nor a tax increase is going to matter much to the government in terms of revenue. Of course, to cut a rich person’s taxes more than a middle-class person’s taxes seems outrageously unfair. But as Steve Forbes tells it in this clip, there may be other ways to satisfy low-income earners on this hot-button issue. Watch as Fox’s Neil Cavuto gets the big picture perspective from the longtime Forbes publisher and two-time Republican presidential candidate.
