It’s always fun when a president throws out a phenominal plan without consulting Congress, especially members of his own party. How quickly they run to hide. – PB/TK
White House: Cohn-Led Tax Plan Is Real and It’s Phenomenal – by Margaret Talev
Former Goldman Sachs Group Inc. president Gary Cohn is leading the effort to craft President Donald Trump’s plan to overhaul taxes that will be released within weeks, a White House official said.
Unnamed congressional leaders have been consulted on the blueprint, the official said. It’s separate from Trump’s proposed budget, the official said, requesting anonymity because the plan is still under development.
During a meeting at the White House with U.S. airline executives Thursday, Trump said he had a “phenomenal” plan to revamp business taxes that would be revealed within the next two or three weeks, without offering details. White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer told reporters later that day that specifics would emerge only in the coming weeks. Still, he said the White House is at work on an outline of the most comprehensive business and individual tax overhaul since 1986.
Cohn, 56, stepped down as Goldman’s president and chief operating officer in December after agreeing to lead Trump’s National Economic Council, an influential panel that helps coordinate and develop the president’s economic program. He was long seen as the heir apparent to the bank’s Chief Executive Officer Lloyd Blankfein.
During a news conference Friday with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Trump said he was working with House Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on the tax measure, which would be guided by an “incentive-based policy” and released “over the next short period of time.”
Congressional leaders weren’t commenting on Trump’s tax plans. Staff members in the offices of Ryan and Ways and Means Chairman Kevin Brady referred questions about it to the White House. A spokesman for McConnell had no immediate comment after a scheduled meeting Friday between the Kentucky Republican and the president.
Continue to bloomberg.com article: https://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2017-02-10/trump-s-tax-plan-said-to-be-released-in-weeks-and-led-by-cohn
