Treasury chief dismisses concerns that Trump may personally benefit from tax plan

The treasury secretary said there will be full "transparency."

ByABC News
October 1, 2017, 11:18 AM

— -- Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin dismissed concerns that President Donald Trump may personally benefit from his administration's new tax plan, saying there will be "full transparency" when the tax changes go through the legislative process.

ABC News Chief Anchor George Stephanopoulos pressed Mnuchin in an interview on "This Week" Sunday on how the public will know whether Trump would benefit from the tax proposal if the president won't release his tax returns.

Mnuchin responded, "I think the American public will be comfortable with the information they have."

"There's going to be full transparency as we go through the legislative process, what those rules are, so that rich people can't take advantage of it," the treasury secretary said.

Trump touted his tax plan in Indiana on Wednesday, promising the wealthy would not benefit.

“Our framework includes our explicit commitment that tax reform will protect low-income and middle-income households, not the wealthy and well-connected. They can call me all they want, it's not going to help. I'm doing the right thing. And it's not good for me, believe me,” he said.

When Stephanopoulos asked Mnuchin on Sunday how he can “guarantee that the president won't get a tax cut under his plan,” the treasury chief didn't say.

“I've said all along, the objective of the president is that rich people don't get tax cuts,” Mnuchin said. “And we're perfectly comfortable, as we go through this process, we'll explain to the American public how that works and we'll give plenty of examples.”

Mnuchin said the Trump administration aims for all middle-class Americans to get a tax cut, but the specifics are still being worked out.

“It is our objective that the entire middle class does get a tax cut. And that's something we're working on the details,” Mnuchin said.

“You can't make guarantees because every single person's taxes are different," Mnuchin said. "So we can't make that guarantee but we can say that's our objective and that's what we're working to [do] and we want to protect the middle class.”

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