Cutting taxation rates will aid ailing U.S. economy, VP-elect says
(Reuters) — The Trump administration plans to move quickly on its goals to overhaul taxation, healthcare and immigration laws, Vice President-elect Mike Pence said in an interview published by the Wall Street Journal on Friday.
President-elect Donald Trump, who takes office on Jan. 20, is preparing 100-day and 200-day plans aimed at fulfilling his campaign promises and stimulating economic growth, Pence said.
The administration's first priorities would include curbing illegal immigration, abolishing and replacing Obama's signature healthcare program, nominating someone to fill a vacancy on the Supreme Court and strengthening the military, he told the newspaper.
Pence was interviewed after introducing Trump at a rally in Cincinnati on Thursday. It was the start of what Trump aides have billed as a thank-you tour of battleground states that helped the Republican defeat his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton on Nov. 8.
The Trump administration would work with congressional leaders by next spring "to move fundamental tax reform" meant to "free up the pent-up energy in the American economy," Pence was quoted as saying by the Journal.
This would include lowering marginal tax rates, cutting the corporate tax rate "from some of the highest in the industrialized world" to 15 percent and repatriating corporate cash held overseas, Pence told the newspaper.
Both chambers of the U.S. Congress are controlled by Republicans.
"I think the only thing that will surprise them is that Washington, D.C., is going to get an awful lot done in a short period of time," Pence told the newspaper when asked what might surprise voters about the Trump administration.
