House Committee on Ways and Means
Ranking Member Richard E. Neal
Prepared by Ways and Means, Democratic Staff
April 26, 2017

President Trump’s Tax Proposal
Another Broken Promise to the Middle Class
President Trump’s tax proposal would hurt working families and disproportionately favor
the wealthy and large corporations at the expense of the nation’s middle class.
• Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin set out a test for tax reform that, “there will be no
absolute tax cut for the upper class.” But the president’s tax plan has failed this test
miserably by providing a huge tax cut for the wealthy while middle income families
would receive very little benefit.
• In fact, Trump’s tax plan provides a huge tax benefit for him personally. Using his 2005
tax return numbers, Trump would save about $28.6 million in taxes under his
plan. About $27 million of those savings is due to the reduction of the pass through
income rate to 15%.
President Trump’s tax proposal blows a hole in the nation’s deficit.
• It’s become painfully obvious that the deficit only matters when a Democrat is President.
• The plan is not revenue neutral. In fact, early press reports indicate that the Trump
proposal is likely to add several trillions of dollars to our deficit.
• Busting the deficit the way the Trump tax plan would do puts immediate pressure on our
other obligations – including guaranteed Medicare benefits. The President can’t pretend
to protect Medicare, then leave beneficiaries completely exposed by draining our coffers.
• For some context, these tax cuts could fund Medicare for the next 75 years or more.
• You have to question the priorities of the President – is he working to keep his promises
to hardworking Americans, or is he abandoning those promises in favor of enriching the
wealthy.
President Trump’s tax proposal is a return to Reagan’s failed supply side economics
• The evidence is clear: large tax cuts like this don’t pay for themselves, despite the
rhetoric we hear from this Administration. Just ask the conservative leaning Tax
Foundation.
• This broad outline – which lacks any kind of real detail – seems to simply be a repeat of
the mistakes we made with President George W. Bush’s tax cuts in 2001 and 2003, which
cost us trillions of dollars, did nothing to help working families, and, in part, contributed
to the Great Recession.
Democrats know that the Middle Class deserves the tax cut, not Donald Trump and his
Cabinet.
• We would focus on growing our economy from the middle out, instead of trickle-down
economics from the top down.
• That includes helping families with day to day costs, such as rising child care costs, rising
tuition costs, rising costs of dependent care and the care for our elderly.
• Finally, it’s time we go big on infrastructure. Democrats have long said that we should
use bipartisan tax reform as an opportunity to address our nation’s crumbling
infrastructure and we’re disappointed the president’s plan does not seize this opportunity.