Trump says he will push for new round of tax cuts after midterms

by Jordan Fabian - 10/22/18 3:40 PM ET

President Trump said Monday he will push for a vote on a second round of tax cuts during the lame-duck session of Congress following the midterm election.

“We’re doing it now for middle-income people. This is not for business, this is for middle,” Trump told reporters at the White House, adding that “we’ll do the vote after the election.”

The president said he will put forth a proposal in the next two weeks that will include a 10-percent reduction for middle-class Americans.{mosads}

Trump over the weekend caused confusion when he said the new round of tax cuts would be introduced “sometime just prior to November.”

The House is currently out of session and will reconvene again on Nov. 13.

Trump often touts his first round of tax cuts, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, as one of his administration’s major legislative victories. The law, a major overhaul of U.S. tax policy, consisted of a tax cut on individuals and corporations.

Trump on Saturday differentiated the two plans, saying this latest “is not for business at all.”

Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) on Sunday argued that a second round of tax cuts could plunge the country deeper into debt.

“We’ve got to make sure that it’s at least supported by facts around dynamic growth,” he said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

“It has to pay for itself,” he added. “We can’t go further in debt.”

An August report from the Congressional Budget Office showed that the federal deficit jumped 20 percent in the first 10 months of the 2018 fiscal year, largely due to the Republican-backed tax cuts.

Tags Donald Trump Thom Tillis