President Trump’s Treasury Secretary, Scott Bessent, rejected the notion of a short-term extension of the 2017 Trump Tax Cuts on Wednesday, asserting that President Trump has a mandate to make the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act permanent.
“President Trump has a mandate. He came in to do big things. And one of the big things that this administration wants to do is make the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act permanent,” Bessent said. “And that permanency will continue to make the U.S. the number one economy in the world in terms of growth.”
Bessent further stated that the Trump Administration will use a current policy baseline to score the tax bill.
Below is the clip of Secretary Bessent’s comments from his appearance on Fox Business with host Larry Ludlow:
Kudlow: “Do you have a thought about this flap that’s developing, I’m hearing about a five year, or Edward Lawrence is reporting a five year extension not a ten year extension, or other flotsam and jetsam that would interfere with the Trump tax cuts?”
Bessent: “President Trump has a mandate. He came in to do big things. And one of the big things that this administration wants to do is make the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act permanent. And that permanency will continue to make the U.S. the number one economy in the world in terms of growth. We are going to bring down inflation, we are going to cut regulations, and we are going to get the tax cut, the goal is still for them to be made permanent. And as you just said, we are going to use current policy scoring.”
Americans for Tax Reform applauds Secretary Bessent’s call to make the Trump Tax Cuts permanent while using current policy scoring.
A short-term extension of the Trump Tax Cuts would fail to deliver the long-term economic growth achieved by making the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) permanent.
A short-term extension of TCJA, such as the 5-year extension reported to be under consideration by a handful of House Republican Members, would set up a future cliff in which Democrats would have a significant political leverage to increase wasteful spending and subsidies for “green” energy in exchange for extending TCJA provisions.
Making the Trump Tax Cuts permanent would avoid this scenario altogether while delivering certainty for American families and businesses while maximizing economic growth.
Bessent is correct to call for using a current policy baseline for scoring the budgetary impact of reconciliation. As Senate Finance Chairman Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) has stated, “almost every American who has any common sense understands that. If you’re not changing the tax code, you’re simply extending current policy — you are not increasing the deficit. The bottom line here is that it’s a $4.3 trillion tax increase, not a $4.3 trillion deficit increase.”
A current policy baseline further follows the precedent for extending major tax legislation set under the Obama administration when Congress extended the 2001 and 2003 Bush tax cuts.