WASHINGTON ― Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin refused to say on Sunday whether President Donald Trump would benefit from his own tax reform plan.
On ABC’s “This Week With George Stephanopoulos,” he also repeatedly brushed aside questions about Trump’s tax records, which the president has refused to release in full.
“The objective of the president is that rich people don’t get tax cuts,” Mnuchin said. “And we’re perfectly comfortable, as we go through this process, we’ll explain to the American public how that works and we’ll give plenty of examples.”
Pressed on whether Trump will provide information backing up the claim that he won’t benefit from his proposal, Mnuchin said: “I can’t comment on what the president will do or what he won’t do on that.
He added: “But again, I’m perfectly comfortable that the American public is going to understand this as we go through this process, because what this is about is creating middle-income tax cuts and creating a corporate tax system that’s competitive.”
The Tax Policy Center reviewed Trump’s tax proposal and found that “the highest-income households would receive the highest cuts, both in dollars and as a percentage of income.”
Mnuchin dismissed the center’s findings that 80 percent of the benefits would go to the richest one percent of Americans. He said simply: “That’s not a fact.”
Later on the show, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) trashed Trump’s tax plan. “What this is is a massive transfer of wealth,” he said. “It’s the Robin Hood principle in reverse. He’s taking from working families and low-income people and giving to it the super-rich and creating a $1.5 trillion deficit.”
On CBS’ “Face the Nation,” House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) said he couldn’t guarantee that every middle-class taxpayer would get a cut under the Trump plan. “I don’t know every single person’s little, small problem or issue,” he said.
He added: “So yes, people are going to get tax cuts. How big are those tax cuts? That depends on the individual.”