political reporter and the panel we have for the hour, white house correspondent for npr and for politico. let s start with you. what does steve bannon want to do? he s been telling colleagues and associates outside the white house he wants the highest tax bracket to have a 4 in front of it. currently it s 39.6% on the highest income earners. bannon wants to raise that to pay for steep and middle income tax cuts. this is an idea that has basically no support in the white house. the republicans in the west wing. also last night, after i wrote this, i got a text from a senior official that said we killed that two months ago. i said, listen, bannon still wants it, feels it s the right approach, a. pu list idea. fits with the pop pulism the
obviously the president wouldn t touch social security and medicare, but changes are coming. these programs are going broke. what s the answer, austan? i think first, donald trump is going to have to deal with the blowback. he didn t just promise not to touch medicare and social security. he specifically made a core promise not to touch medicaid. his own people are going to get on him about what he s doing here. which is to cut almost a trillion dollars out of what was legally allocated. austan, what s the alternative? what has to happen is not target just one thing. you have to look at the entire budget, then you shouldn t lose $5 trillion on the tax side and try to make up for it by cutting on medicaid. you should forgo the high income tax cuts so you don t have to make those cuts. why did you average economic
these programs are going broke. what s the answer, austan? i think first, donald trump is going to have to deal with the blowback. he didn t just promise not to touch medicare and social security. he specifically made a core promise not to touch medicaid. his own people are going to get on him about what he s doing here. which is to cut almost g a trillion dollars out of what was legally allocated. d austan, what s the alternative? what has to happen is not target just one thing. you have to look at the entire budget, then you shouldn t lose $5 trillion on the tax side and try to make up for it by cutting on$5 medicaid. you should forgo the high income tax cuts so you don t have to make those cuts. why did you average economic growth over the obama years? you didn t have tax reform.
determined to pass massive tax reform and massive tax cuts that will put people back to work and will create u.s. jobs. we will bring back trillions of dollars that are sitting offshore by having a one-time tax and going to a territorial system and making u.s. businesses the most competitive in the world. tucker: the idea and congress for a long time has been that you would take that money offshore when it comes back to united states and put it back in some kind of infrastructure pool. that is one of the things we will look at. infrastructure will be done separate than tax reform. the president is committed to a trillion dollar infrastructure program, as well. we need to rebuild america. roads, bridges, critical infrastructure, and that is something he is very committed to, as well. tucker: you want to get democratic support for this, of course. what would be our five sentence pitch to a moderate, if they still exist, democrat of the house? i would hope they support this. this
reform and massive tax cuts that will put people back to work and will create u.s. jobs. we will bring back trillions of dollars that are sitting offshore by having a one-time tax and going to a territorial system and making u.s. businesses the most competitive in the world. tucker: the idea in congress for a long time has been that you would take that money offshore, when it comes back to united states and put it back in some kind of infrastructure pool. that is one of the things we will look at. infrastructure will be done separate than tax reform. the president is committed to a trillion dollar infrastructure program, as well. we need to rebuild america. roads, bridges, criticaleb infrastructure, and that is something he is very committed to, as well. tucker: you want to get democratic support for this, of course. what would be your five sentence pitch to a moderate, if they still exist, democrat in the house? i would hope they support this. this is all about middle income t