Grover Norquist, who is the founder and president of Americans for Tax Reform, argued that the proposal to increase the taxes of wealthy Americans would be unfair to those who will carry the burden of this plan suggested by Steve Bannon. The conservative activist even called out the political aide for his "cruel" suggestion which he said can hurt those who will be affected by this idea.
Anti-tax advocate reacts to tax hike proposal
During his interview with CNN on Monday, Norquist argued that increasing the rates of the rich would have a long-term effect on the economic growth.
He supported this statement by citing Donald Trump's proposal for a corporate tax cut of 15 percent. "We need lower rates across the board, and the president is pushing particularly for taxes on businesses to be reduced," he told the outlet.
He added that it is a "cruel thing" for Bannon to proposed such plan which will pass the burden of higher tax rates to the rich Americans. Norquist added that the idea will particularly affect the middle-class people. The Republican also claimed that the members of the Democratic Party would "cheerily" push for the hike on some people. "That's what Democrats do," he added.
The anti-tax advocate, however, argued that the Dems have also been pushing for tax hike even among lower and middle-class people and cited the former administration's Obamacare as an example.
"Gas taxes they've been pushing, energy taxes they've been pushing," he added.
Bannon's reported tax hike proposal
An insider revealed that the president's chief strategist is an allegedly planning to propose for an increase the tax rate of wealthy Americans to cover the tax rate cuts of the middle-income group. Axios was the first to report about the plan and stated that Bannon wants "the top tax bracket to have a 4 in front of" the top income tax bracket of 39.6 percent.
A White House source, however, denied that the report conveys the accurate plan of Bannon to push for a tax reform. In fact, the political aide along with Steven Mnuchin, Gary Cohn, and Jared Kushner had a meeting with the U.S. president where they ironed out the details of the tax plan.
Cohn and Mnuchin are reportedly eager to close a deal on tax reform.
Several sources are saying that the National Economic Council director could be planning to leave the White House if a tax reform agreement will not be reached within the year.
"Cohn has told associates that if tax reform doesn't get done this year, it's probably never going to happen," Axios cited.
