President Trump said Wednesday he would be open to raising the corporate tax rate that he spent tremendous political capital to cut in order to provide a bipartisan middle class tax cut.
“I would be certainly willing to do a little bit of an adjustment,” he said during a post-midterm elections press conference. “I would love to see a tax cut for the middle class.”
[Related: Trump sees ‘very good chance’ of bipartisanship next year]
Trump’s comments could worry his allies in the business community, who pushed for a corporate tax rate lower than the average for developed countries.
Republicans, including Trump, and third party groups in favor of last year’s law pushed back on efforts during the drafting process to lessen the reduction in the corporate rate in favor of deeper tax cuts for individuals.
At least one senior House Democrat embraced a middle class tax cut, but remained skeptical of Trump.
“This call for the 10 percent cut for middle class families is something that he should’ve voiced last year,” Rep. Lloyd Doggett D-Texas, a senior member of the House Ways and Means Committee that writes tax policy, said during a Wednesday afternoon press call. “We’re now in a position where we have trillions of dollars of debt that could weigh down our economy in the future,” argued the Texas Democrat.
Last year’s tax law is expected to lower revenues by $1.5 trillion over 10 years. Republicans argued that economic growth would bring in new revenues and plug that budget hole, while Democrats have attacked the law for increasing budget shortfalls.
Doggett added that he was encouraged that Trump left the door open to raising the corporate income tax rate to help offset the budgetary impact of another tax cut.
In particular, the White House fought a provision from Sen. Marco Rubio R-Fla., to offset the cost of an expanded child tax credit by reducing the corporate cut in last year’s law slightly. Rubio had worked with Trump’s daughter and senior White House adviser Ivanka Trump on the provision. Several Senate Democrats also supported the change.
