Mulvaney: New round of tax cuts would be a top second-term priority for Trump

Acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney on Friday said a new round of tax cuts would be a top priority for President Trump if he gets reelected.

“We need to do the second part of the tax bill. We really do,” Mulvaney said at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference.

Mulvaney said Trump wants to further lower the corporate tax rate, cutting it from 21 percent to 20 percent. The president’s 2017 tax law slashed the rate from 35 percent to 21 percent.

“He’s never liked the fact that the corporate tax is 21 percent. He always wanted it to be 20,” Mulvaney said about Trump.

During his 2016 presidential campaign, Trump sought a 15 percent corporate tax rate. Initial GOP bills Congress introduced in 2017 included a corporate tax rate of 20 percent, but the rate ended up at 21 percent.

Mulvaney also said the White House wants to make permanent the parts of the 2017 law that have expiration dates. Most of the tax cuts for individuals expire after 2025.

Additionally, Mulvaney said the White House has been talking about reducing capital gains taxes by indexing them to inflation. In September, the White House said Trump wasn’t imminently going to take executive action to index capital gains, arguing that the president didn’t feel that enough of the benefits would help the middle class.

The White House has been talking for months about releasing a new tax proposal in 2020 that Trump could campaign on as he seeks a second term.

Passage of a new tax bill would not only be contingent on Trump winning reelection, but also on Republicans flipping control of the House and maintaining control of the Senate. All congressional Democrats opposed Trump’s 2017 tax law, citing the tax cuts for corporations and wealthy individuals. The law has failed to garner widespread support from the public.