White House Scaling Back Goals for Business Tax Cuts<br />To ensure the support of influential lawmakers in both chambers of Congress, the two officials are meeting weekly to discuss the bill’s intricacies in a group being referred to as the Big Six: House Speaker Paul D. Ryan; Kevin Brady, the chairman of the House Ways<br />and Means Committee; Mitch McConnell, the Senate majority leader; and Orrin G. Hatch, the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee.<br />By KATE KELLY and ALAN RAPPEPORTJULY 19, 2017<br />With President Trump’s promise to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act nearly dead, administration officials are scaling back their ambitions to<br />cut the corporate tax rate sharply, apparently taking a more pragmatic approach as they scramble to secure a major legislative victory this year.<br />In recent days, discussions among Mr. Trump’s economic advisers over promised tax cuts for corporations<br />and individuals have taken on new urgency, a person who has been briefed on the matter said.<br />A White House spokeswoman, Natalie Strom, said: “Discussions between the White House and Congress are progressing in a very positive direction.<br />Steven Mnuchin, the Treasury secretary, and Gary D. Cohn, the director of the National Economic Council, are communicating<br />daily over the tax proposal with the aim of drafting a bill to be introduced on the House floor in early September.<br />But now the proposed business tax rate is “drifting higher,” this person said, and may end up in the low 20 percent range.
