A former top aide in President Donald Trump’s first administration is arguing that Republicans raising taxes on wealthy Americans “makes no sense.”
Marc Short, the former chief of staff to ex-Vice President Mike Pence, was an integral part of negotiations for Trump’s 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA). He also served in Trump’s first White House as director of legislative affairs from 2017 to 2018.
“Raising taxes on America’s highest earners and biggest job creators makes no sense. I don’t understand why there are some inside the current administration who are pushing Congress to raise the top rate, because again, these are America’s job creators,” Short said.
“So many small businesses file taxes as individuals. And so you’re actually going to be raising taxes on many small businesses, not just individuals.”
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Congressional Republicans are working on a massive piece of legislation that Trump has dubbed his “big, beautiful bill,” aimed at advancing his policies on tax, border security, immigration, energy, defense and the national debt.
The tax policy portion is expected to be the costliest, and House negotiators are working on identifying a number of areas to cut a total of at least $1.5 trillion to offset the new spending.
A source familiar with Trump’s thinking told Fox News Digital he’s considering allowing the rate on individuals making $2.5 million or more to revert from 37% to the pre-2017 39.6%.
It will help pay for massive middle- and working-class tax cuts as well as protect Medicaid, the source said.
The TCJA lowered the tax rate for the top income bracket — currently $609,350 for single filers — to 37%, a cut that’s expiring at the end of this year.
Creating a new, higher tax bracket for people earning significantly more than that would help pay for extending the 2017 tax cuts as well as implementing Trump’s new priorities: eliminating taxes on tips, overtime pay and retirees’ Social Security checks.
But Short, who helped get the 2017 package passed, dismissed those new Trump priorities as short-sighted political sweeteners.
“I feel like some of the administration’s new requirements are somewhat gimmicky. I’m not sure many Americans who earn their income based on tips are even paying taxes on those tips right now. And I think we should begin to extend that to say no tax on overtime,” he said.
Short said those changes would create “a lot of additional hurdles for businesses to comply with.”
“I think the no tax on Social Security, it seems like what we’re trying to do is different from 2017, when we passed the Tax Cuts and Job Act,” he said. “We tried to simplify the tax code, make it flatter and fair for all Americans, as opposed to creating carve-outs for certain constituencies.”
Fox News Digital reached out to the White House for a response to Short’s remarks.
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Some conservative groups like the Heritage Foundation and Americans for Prosperity are also wary of a potential tax hike for the wealthy.
Richard Stern, director of the Hermann Center for the Federal Budget at the Heritage Foundation, said the group is opposed to efforts to raise tax rates to 40% or higher.
“Congress needs to get its fiscal house in order, but it must do so by tightening its own belt, not by forcing American taxpayers to tighten theirs. A higher top tax rate would be counterproductive, discouraging hard work and entrepreneurship,” Stern said.
Americans for Prosperity chief government affairs officer Brent Gardner said in a statement, “Raising taxes on any American should be completely off the table.”
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