Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin appeared on ABC’s This Week on Sunday to combat the liberal media’s flagrant lies and falsehoods about the administration’s tax reform framework. Before having to deal with Chuck Todd’s historical revisionism on the relationship between tax cuts and economic growth, he had to deal with ABC’s Clinton lackey George Stephanopoulos who insisted over and over that the tax cuts were only meant for the wealthiest Americans.
With barely a dignified introduction to the viewers, Stephanopoulos pounced on Mnuchin and grill him on how his framework only helped the wealthiest few:
We just heard the President right there. Also, you and your colleagues have said the wealthy will not get a tax cut under the plan. It's really hard to see how that can possibly be true given that your plan proposes cutting the top rate, eliminating the Estate Tax, eliminating the Alternate Minimum Tax, cutting that rate on pass-through entities, and the non-partisan Tax Policy Center calculates that 80 percent of the benefits will flow to the top one percent.
“George, first of all, it’s great to be with you. And no that’s not a fact,” Mnuchin began. “As the President has said all along, the changes to the income tax system are meant to create middle-income tax cuts and also make corporate and business tax competitive so we can bring back tons and tons of jobs and capital to this country.”
Stephanopoulos dismissed his guest’s explanation as he continued to push Democratic talking points about the framework. “I know that's the objective. Based on the evidence put out so far, all those cuts I just talked about, that will benefit the wealthiest the most,” he asserted.
“As we have talked about, changes in this top bracket are offset with the elimination of almost every single type of deduction other than charitable giving and the mortgage interest deduction,” Mnuchin explained. “A huge component of the businesses in the country are pass-throughs. We want to make sure they have the necessary tax relief to go out and hire more workers and invest more capital.”
The Clinton lackey was waving around an analysis from the “nonpartisan” Tax Policy Center that claimed most of the benefits from tax reform were going to be the wealthiest one percent. Mnuchin shot the study down by noting that the proposal was still only a framework with the details of where the three tax brackets fell still being negotiated, which meant their review was using incomplete data.
But Stephanopoulos still wouldn’t let up on his liberal characterization of tax reform. “Secretary, I don't understand how you can say based on everything that is put out so far that it's not a tax cut for the wealthy,” he persisted. “The wealthy pay most of the taxes, they are getting take cuts there, they are going to get benefits.”
No matter how many times Mnuchin explained it to Stephanopoulos, the ABC host would not drop the class-warfare smear of the proposal. He even admitted that lower income levels would be getting tax breaks but since the rich got similar ones on the face of it that mean it was really meant to benefit them.
Transcript below:
ABC
This Week
October 1, 2017
9:23:03 AM Eastern(…)
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: We just heard the President right there. Also, you and your colleagues have said the wealthy will not get a tax cut under the plan. It's really hard to see how that can possibly be true given that your plan proposes cutting the top rate, eliminating the Estate Tax, eliminating the Alternate Minimum Tax, cutting that rate on pass-through entities, and the non-partisan Tax Policy Center calculates that 80 percent of the benefits will flow to the top one percent. We're going show that chart right now. Almost every group getting a tax cut, but the wealthiest getting the most. That’s just a fact, isn't it?
STEVE MNUCHIN: George, first of all, it’s great to be with you. And no that’s not a fact. As we release the details of the plan, we'll show all the different impacts to different people. As the President has said all along, the changes to the income tax system are meant to create middle-income tax cuts and also make corporate and business tax competitive so we can bring back tons and tons of jobs and capital to this country.
STEPHANOPOULOS: I know that's the objective. Based on the evidence put out so far, all those cuts I just talked about, that will benefit the wealthiest the most.
MNUCHIN: Well George, I just don't think that's the case. As we have talked about, changes in this top bracket are offset with the elimination of almost every single type of deduction other than charitable giving and the mortgage interest deduction. And, you know, this has impacted different people in different states. But, again, we'll go through all the details as we go through the congressional process of the House and the Senate, and we'll show all the distributions.
And as it relates to pass-throughs, this is about creating jobs. A huge component of the businesses in the country are pass-throughs. We want to make sure they have the necessary tax relief to go out and hire more workers and invest more capital.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Secretary, I don't understand how you can say based on everything that is put out so far that it's not a tax cut for the wealthy. Even the Vice President has said these are across-the-board tax cuts. The wealthy pay most of the taxes, they are getting take cuts there, they are going to get benefits.
(…)
