Trump seeks pivot to tax reform after focus on health care

President Trump is reviving his push for tax reform after a week dominated by foreign policy and health care debates, using his weekly address on Friday to preview a plan to simplify the tax code and lower corporate tax rates.

“For too long, American families have been hurt by Washington’s policies that put the interests of other countries before the interests of our country,” Trump said. 

“That is why, in my administration, we are pursuing tax cuts and reform that create jobs in America, for American workers — not foreign workers, but American workers.”

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Under his proposal, Trump said, 95 percent of Americans would be able to file their taxes on a single page, and middle-class families and U.S. companies would be the recipients of tax cuts.

“We have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to reform our tax code and pave the way to unprecedented prosperity. By doing what we’re doing, we will see results like you’ve never seen before,” he said. “It will be the largest tax cut in our country’s history.”

Also a key focus of his administration’s tax reform efforts, Trump said, is to repatriate trillions of dollars in wealth held overseas. 

A group of GOP leaders in the Senate, House and administration is slated to release more details on a long-awaited tax plan next week, but the extent of the details remains murky.

The focus on tax reform follows a week in which Trump met with several world leaders and delivered his first address before the United Nations General Assembly in New York.

Back in Washington, lawmakers have focused overwhelmingly on the GOP’s latest effort in the Senate to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act. 

But that effort was dealt a potentially decisive blow on Friday, when Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) announced that he would not support the measure authored by Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Bill Cassidy (R-La.).

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) had already come out against the bill, and Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) has signaled that she is leaning against supporting the measure. McCain’s announcement, however, could prompt other GOP senators to follow suit and oppose the proposal.

After the GOP’s last push to repeal parts of the ACA failed in July, Trump and congressional Republicans appeared to pivot toward tax reform — a key campaign promise for Trump and an initiative widely backed by Republican lawmakers.