Senator Bob Corker
During a hearing on the Trump administration’s fiscal year 2018 budget request, U.S. Senator Bob Corker, a member of the Senate Budget Committee, discussed the president’s tax reform plan with Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney and urged the White House to put forward a revenue-neutral, pro-growth proposal that does not add to the country’s deficit.
“Somebody in the administration either yesterday or the day before said that the president’s tax reform plan will be offset on a static basis every year of the budget window… and I just wondered if you would affirm that,” said Senator Corker.
“I think that’s consistent at least, senator,” replied Director Mulvaney. “I’m not familiar with that exact statement, but I think it’s consistent with some of the discussions we had here earlier today about the assumptions we made in this budget. We get accused, as you probably heard, about double counting. The assumptions that we made with this was that the changes in things like the deductions and the exemptions and the loopholes would result in a tax plan that was revenue neutral.”
“But the actual policy that will be put in place, meaning the way you put the budget together, was that the tax reform package would be static… [and] would be deficit neutral, and that seems to be consistent with the White House official yesterday,” responded Senator Corker. “So, it sounds like the tax policy they are planning to put in place would be revenue neutral in every year over the next ten years, and that’s consistent actually with what you’ve put in the budget, is that correct?”
“…the assumptions we made were along the lines of what you just laid out,” said Director Mulvaney.
Senator Corker also stressed the need to get our country’s fiscal house in order by strengthening Social Security and Medicare.
“Certainly with all of our entitlement programs we need to use the word ‘reform’ to make sure that people actually benefit from the services… and do so in a more efficient way so that these program are around in the future,” added Senator Corker. “I do hope that in the 2019 budget that you’re able to convince the administration to actually begin looking at Social Security and Medicare [reform] as a component, because if you leave that much off the table, it’s very difficult, as you know, to solve our nation’s fiscal issues. You and I both know we can deal with that issue appropriately, and yet not do anything to in any way damage or harm the people that are currently on those programs.”