Trump's New Tax Plan Would Cut Taxes for the Rich and Businesses

Trump officials unveiled a one-page outline of the president's tax plan Wednesday, promising that significant cuts across the board would enable the economy to thrive—but Democrats have slammed the plan as a "gift" to the uber-rich, the New York Times reports.

Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin and National Economic Director Gary Cohn discussed Trump's plan—which will now be debated and tweaked for about a year—at a White House press briefing. They told reporters Trump wants to slash the number of income tax brackets from seven to just three: 10, 25, and 35 percent. As it stands, individuals can be taxed up to 39.6 percent of what they make.

Additionally, Trump wants to shrink the corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 15 percent and place a "one-time tax" on the billions corporations store overseas, plying them to bring it back to America. He's looking to apply that 15 percent rate on corporations to entities like hedge funds, partnerships, and real estate businesses—that last one being a major source of income for Trump himself.

His administration hopes to eliminate most tax deductions, only allowing taxpayers to deduct contributions to charity and interest on their mortgages. Plus, he's looking to get rid of the estate tax—what the government takes from deceased people before it's passed onto their heirs—and the Obama-era alternative minimum tax.

All in all, it's a sweeping series of tax cuts for individuals and corporations that Mnuchin called "the biggest tax cut and the largest tax reform in the history of our country," according to CNN. He said Trump's administration hopes to have it enacted before the end of the year, though didn't say how the cuts would be paid for.

According to a review from the bipartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget—an independent nonprofit based in DC—Trump's plan could cost anywhere from $3 to $7 trillion and actually "drive up the federal debt, harming economic growth instead of boosting it."

Congressional Republicans are set to release their own tax plan soon, and some seem to be skeptical about Trump's. Many Democrats see it as a major gift to the wealthiest people and companies in America, a set of policies to slash taxes without any framework to make up for lost revenue.

Speaking with the Times, Ted Lieu, a Democrat representative from California, called the plan "mathematically impossible." Senator Chuck Schumer of New York said it would "explode the deficit." And Tom Perez, chairman of the Democratic Party, said he was worried that it could significantly benefit Trump's own business interests.

"Trump's latest proposal is another gift to corporations and billionaires like himself," Perez told the Times. "Trump must release his tax returns, as millions of Americans are demanding, before Congress can consider any Trump tax plan. We must know how much Trump would personally financially benefit from his own proposal."

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