 Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney testifies before the Senate Budget Committee on May 25. (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images) By Max Ehrenfreund It has been just over a week since President Trump sent his request for the federal budget to Congress — his first comprehensive statement on the economy since taking office. Now, his budget director is walking back a fundamental component of the president's plan. "I wouldn't take what's in the budget as indicative of what our proposals are," Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney said in an interview with the Washington Examiner. Mulvaney was referring to taxes, which Trump has made one of his chief priorities for improving the economy. In the budget published last week, the Trump administration seemed to propose combining reduced rates with fewer deductions and credits, implying no overall cut in taxes. In the interview, however, Mulvaney said the White House still wants to cut taxes, regardless of what they assumed in the budget. That clears up some of the confusion surrounding last week's budget. Since Trump promised repeatedly to reduce taxes as a candidate, the fact that that pledge was not included in the budget was a surprise. Yet Mulvaney's reversal on a basic aspect of the president's economic policy as laid out in the budget also creates new questions. Why did the budget not include a tax cut? Read the rest on Wonkblog.
Number of the day 4.3 percent. That was the unemployment rate in May, according to the monthly report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics -- the lowest reading in 16 years. Ana Swanson has more. | 
Twitter
Facebook
No comments:
Post a Comment