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Former Budget Chief Warns Trump Against Border Tax

Former Budget Chief Warns Trump Against Border Tax

President Donald Trump (MANDEL NGAN/AFP/Getty Images)

By    |   Friday, 27 January 2017 04:14 PM EST

President Donald Trump shouldn't push for a border-adjustment tax to fund his wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, according to a former director of the Congressional Budget Office.

The White House announced Thursday that Trump is considering a 20 percent import tax on products from Mexico to finance the wall he touted throughout his campaign. Trump's chief of staff Reince Priebus later walked back Trump's comments, telling reporters that the White House is looking into a "buffet of options," according to CNN.

"Congress is going to pay for [the wall] with tax reform. We haven't done tax reform in 30 years, so it's a little bit of a risk there," Douglas Holtz-Eakin told The Hill.

Holtz-Eakin, now the president of the American Action Forum, added: "You've got to make sure you get tax reform done so that you can ultimately pay this bill," before listing a number of potential obstacles in Trump's way.

"He's going to deal with a lot more outside forces impinging on his desire to build a wall," Holtz-Eakin concluded. "And the question is: how will he manage that?"

Some prominent Republicans expressed similar concerns about Trump's tax plan.

"While renegotiations could help to strengthen and modernize NAFTA to benefit American businesses and consumers, any effort to restrict or impose new barriers on our ability to trade with Mexico and Canada could jeopardize the future of this trade agreement and have serious consequences for Arizona and the country," Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., said in a statement.

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Politics
President Donald Trump shouldn't push for a border-adjustment tax to fund his wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, according to a former director of the Congressional Budget Office.
budget, chief, warns, trump, border, tax
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2017-14-27
Friday, 27 January 2017 04:14 PM
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