The following article by Philip Bump was posted on the Washington Post website November 9, 2017:
Gary Cohn left his position as president of Goldman Sachs shortly after President Trump’s inauguration to take a job with the White House. He now serves as director of the National Economic Council, meaning that he’s Trump’s top adviser on economic issues. As part of that job, he sat down with CNBC’s John Harwood to explain the administration’s goals for overhauling the country’s tax system.
It was an interesting explanation.
Cohn is well aware by now (after some initial confusion) that the anticipated benefits of the proposal are heavily stacked toward the richest Americans. The Tax Policy Center estimates that about a quarter of the benefits of the tax cuts would be seen by the bottom 80 percent of the American economy — and another quarter of the benefits would be seen by the top 0.1 percent. When Harwood noted this discrepancy, Cohn blithely replied, “I don’t believe that we’ve set out to create a tax cut for the wealthy. If someone’s getting a tax cut, I’m not upset that they’re getting a tax cut. I’m really not upset.” Continue reading “Top economic adviser: Tax plan that mostly benefits millionaires is about ‘wage growth’”