The last minute of President Donald Trump to increase taxes on the richest Americans comes up against a saw to buzz in the republican party, where such proposals have long been an anathema.
While the Republicans of Congress bring together a massive tax and cup set to deliver to the Trump’s domestic policy program, the White House kicked at the idea of allowing the tax rate on high employees to go up as a means of paying for other priorities on taxes, immigration and soldiers without cutting programs like Medicaid that millions of Americans slow down.
Trump – Who has sent mixed signals to the issue in recent weeks – has launched the idea of lowering the highest rate for those who earn at least $ 2.5 million per year from 37% to 39.6% during a telephone call with Chamber Mike Johnson, R -La., Wednesday, as NBC News reported.
But the proposal has received a rapid decline from republicans behind the scenes, which raises doubts as to whether it will appear in the package, although a project has still not been finalized. On Friday, in a social article of truth, Trump said that he “would graciously accept” a “increase in” small “tax for the rich”, while warning potential attacks of the Democrats. He said the Republicans should “not do it” but that it would be “ok” if they did.
Grover Norquist, the president of the Americans for tax reform, told NBC News that Trump called it on Wednesday to request his contribution to an increase in taxes for the best employees. Norquist said he had rejected the proposal strongly, citing economic and political reasons.
“I gave him an idea of the reason why I thought that any discussion on the increase in rates was a bad idea: because it would kill jobs, it is detrimental to small businesses, no one in the campaign has never discussed this as an option,” said Norquist. “The other part is that the entire Republican Party is against.”
Norquist said that Trump looked receptive to his argument, and that the president even raised the example of how President George HW Bush suffered politically to return to his 1988 campaign commitment in return, “Read my lips: no new taxes”. Trump also referred to Bush’s commitment to his social post of the truth of Friday.
The idea of an increase in tax rates was also not well well with the Republicans on Capitol Hill, although they entertained the idea after Trump’s call with Johnson on Wednesday. The management of the GOP of the Chamber and the Senate – which has long resisted the highest tax rate – has communicated to the legislators and aid by Thursday evening that there are not enough votes for an increase in taxes on the rich, according to four sources of the GOP familiar with the question.
Johnson and Trump spoke again by phone on Thursday, according to Norquist as well as a source of GOP familiar with the call.
The head of the majority of the Senate, John Thune, RS.D., said on Friday that the Republicans “reduced taxes”.
“I do not want to see taxes increase on anyone. … But the president, he is not a conventional president. People have voted for a conventional president, and I think that his policies reflect it,” said Thune on “Squawk Box” from CNBC. “It all starts in the House of Representatives, they will have to understand how to deal with this.”
There is also a certain confusion among the Republicans on the seriousness of Trump concerning a plan aimed at increasing taxes on the rich. In addition to his ambiguous position on social networks on Friday, Trump had publicly killed the idea of an increase in the millionaires two weeks ago.
Friday, members of the Trump administration also sent contradictory signals. The white house press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a Friday briefing that Trump personally would not bother more money to “help the poor and the middle class and the working class”, but said that “these negotiations are continuing on Capitol Hill”.
Meanwhile, the director of the national economic council, Kevin Hassett, said Trump on Friday that Trump was “not delighted” with a tax increase for the rich and said “it is not high on the president’s list”.
The White House did not respond to a request for additional comments. Johnson’s office also did not respond to a request for comments.
The problem has become a major flash point for the GOP, both in terms of the fate of their “big and beautiful bill” and the direction of the wider part, which tends to more working class under Trump. This has led some Republicans, such as the former White House advisor Steve Bannon, to say that an increase in the wealthy taxes, while a significant interruption in the traditional Orthodoxy of the Party, would be in conformity with the populist approach of Trump.
Senator Josh Hawley, R-MO., Said that this week he supported the increase in taxes on high income employees to compensate for spending in Trump’s agenda, but noted that the majority of his party “probably does not feel the same thing.”
“Maybe one or two, but I don’t think so,” said Hawley, who tried to position himself as the working class champion.
Ryan Ellis, a long -standing tax policy advisor to the Conservatives, said the appetite for higher taxes on the rich was not there among the Republicans, and predicted that they would “absolutely” challenge Trump if he was trying to continue him.
“This is a mortal republican sin. It would be like asking a (Democrat) to deny that climate change exists or something,” said Ellis.
The Republicans of the Chamber run to adopt their bill by the Memorial Day, which means that they are lacking time to make major decisions.
Trump’s evolutionary position on the tax portion of the bill is only one of the problems that afflict GOP leaders on the hill. Johnson is also taken in a power struggle between the moderates and the conservatives on the Medicaid cups, while facing a small group of republicans of the blue states which could torpedo all the effort on the state and the local tax deduction.
The Chamber’s Road and Meaning Committee, responsible for extending Trump’s tax reductions in 2017, aims to mark their part of the bill next week.
Representative Jason Smith, R-MO, the chairman of the committee, was to meet Trump in the White House on Friday afternoon, according to a source from the game familiar with the issue.
