Chief economic adviser Gary Cohn said the White House is "completely engaged" on tax reform and that "we have been working very closely" with congressional leadership, he told the Financial Times on Thursday.
Cohn told the Times that starting next week, President Donald Trump's calendar will "revolve around tax reform."
Cohn didn't bite when asked if the president's attacks on Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Speaker Paul Ryan, to some extent, have complicated matters.
"We have been working very closely with Speaker Ryan and leader McConnell," Cohn told the Times. "We work well together, and we have made a massive amount of progress. We released a statement at the end of July saying we were united in a framework … and I have no doubt they will work with us to do that because they know how important tax reform is for the country."
Cohn's remarks echo those of Ryan, who Thursday said leadership and the White House see "eye to eye" on tax reform, insisting that it will get done this fall. Cohn thinks so, too.
Congressional committees "have been holding hearings for years," Cohn told the Times. "It's not like they are just starting the process now. I don't know how long it will take to actually mark up the bill, but I do think it can pass both of the tax committees and both chambers in 2017."
Cohn also echoed Ryan's stance that mortgage interest deductions will be saved, despite the president's reported intentions to the contrary.
"On the personal side, we have protected the three big deductions — charitable, mortgage and retirement saving. We want to raise the standard deduction caps and get rid of many of the other personal deductions. We want to get rid of death taxes and estate taxes," Cohn told the Times.
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