Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said Wednesday that he won’t allow Democrats to “bully” him on tax reform.
“The president doesn’t get bullied and I don’t get bullied,” Mr. Mnuchin said on the Fox Business Network. “These are sound principles that we’ve been working on, as I said both during the campaign and all year, with the Senate and House leadership. If we come up with an extra bracket, it’s all about creating a larger middle-income tax cut, and as the president said, he’s not looking to lower taxes on the rich.”
Mr. Mnuchin was responding to comments from Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer in a Politico story, in which the New York Democrat said the Treasury secretary was trying to “suck up” to President Trump by “lying” about the results of the tax reform plan.
“I don’t know if the man’s deliberately lying, but it seems so,” Mr. Schumer told Politico. “His statements are outlandish, and he seems just to want to — I don’t know if I’m allowed to use this word; I think I am — suck up to Trump.”
Mr. Mnuchin said he was “quite surprised” by Mr. Schumer’s comments, but was not deterred from the tax reform fight.
“I think the two most important issues that the president is focused on is the 20 percent corporate rate to make our businesses competitive, and a middle income tax cut. That’s what’s driving this,” he said.
Mr. Mnuchin is currently on a four-country trip in the Middle East, including a stop Wednesday in Saudi Arabia at the Future Investment Initiative.
• Sally Persons can be reached at spersons@washingtontimes.com.
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