Mnuchin says Trump tax plan to be signed in December, moving "very fast"
Following President Trump's official rollout of the administration's tax overhaul plan, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin says the administration is "committed" to getting the tax plan signed by the president in December, saying he expects the process to move "very, very fast."
"We're expecting that the House begins the mark up in October, they got a lot of work to do, the Senate will work along with them, we got a lot of people in Treasury that are working with us that are helping the staff and we're going to move this very, very fast," Secretary Mnuchin told "CBS This Morning" on Thursday.
Mnuchin said the administration is "very comfortable" with the president's goals of getting the economy to 3 percent growth, something he says is Mr. Trump's "number one focus." He said the GDP (Gross Domestic Product) projection would create over "2 trillion dollars in revenues and 10 trillion in economic growth."
Asked if 3 percent GDP in 2018 was an unrealistic goal, Mnuchin said "there's some people that disagree, but most agree, just to remind you, the Obama administration projections were substantially higher than that but they were only at 2 percent because of various different policies coming out of the financial crisis."
Mnuchin also said Mr. Trump is committed to making a tax plan that "absolutely" benefits the middle class by providing appropriate income tax cuts, simplifying personal taxes and making corporations competitive with the rest of the world.
"That's our objective and that's what we're focused on," said Mnuchin.
Mr. Trump has promised massive changes to the tax code that will reduce the number of individual tax brackets, eliminate most personal deductions and lower corporate tax rates.
Meanwhile, when asked if the secretary himself could promise tax payers not to fly private or military jets for personal travel, he told CBS, "I can promise the American taxpayer that the only time that I will be using [military] air is when there are issues either for national security or where we have to get to various different things and there's no other means."
Mnuchin's comments come after the House Oversight Committee announced they would be assessing the use of government-owned planes by senior government officials for personal travel or private non-commercial plans for official travel.
The probe, led by Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Maryland, and Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-South Carolina, comes amid reports that Mnuchin asked if he could use a military plane on his honeymoon in Europe last month, although the request was eventually withdrawn.