Tax cut plan will cut deficit by $1T: Treasury Secretary Mnuchin

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Thursday President Donald Trump’s proposed tax cut plan will reduce the deficit by a trillion dollars.

“We think there will be $2 trillion of growth so we think this tax plan will cut down the deficit by a trillion dollars—that’s a large number. We’re focused on growth. We think the 3% GDP is a very moderate aspiration and we can do higher than that,” Mnuchin told FOX Business’ Maria Bartiromo on “Mornings with Maria.”

The plan calls for cutting the current corporate rate of 35% while reducing the rate on pass-through businesses and opposing a one-time low repatriation tax to 10 percent or lower.

“This is about tax simplification and making our business tax at 20% and 25% for pass-throughs very, very competitive with the rest of the world,” Mnuchin said.

Trump’s sweeping tax overhaul plan has received criticism from the left as Democrats continue to push the idea that the tax cut plan will only benefit the rich.

“It’s not a tax cut for the rich and, as the president has said, he is focused on income taxes and the wealthy not going down and we’ve been working on that, we’ll continue to work with Congress on it,” Mnuchin said.

The Treasury secretary said the goal is to create jobs and grow the economy which will help pay for the tax cuts.

“We’ve eliminated almost all deductions so for the rich that means that although the tax rate came down, some all their deductions disappear which pays for it,” he said.