WH Stands By Trump's False Claim, Says US Is 'Highest Taxed Corporate Nation'

Source: Talking Points Memo


By MATT SHUHAM Published OCTOBER 10, 2017 3:18 PM

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders on Tuesday refused to back away from President Donald Trump’s incorrect claim that America is “the highest taxed nation in the world.”

Trump made the claim in the Oval Office during a meeting with Henry Kissinger, according to a pool report. The Trump administration has aggressively pushed a vague tax cut plan in recent weeks, which includes a dramatic cut to the corporate tax rate as well as a slew of other benefits for the rich.

It’s not true that America is the highest taxed nation in the world, by a multitude of measures.

Though America’s top federal corporate tax rate of 35 percent is the highest among countries in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, American corporations on average pay far less that that number. And, as NPR noted, based on data from the Tax Policy Center, corporate tax revenue as a percentage of gross domestic product has dropped dramatically in recent decades in the United States.

Read more: http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/sanders-trump-highest-taxed-corporate-nation

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WH: Republican Lawmakers ‘Alienating Themselves’ By Not Delivering Promises

By NICOLE LAFOND Published OCTOBER 10, 2017 2:45 PM

When asked whether President Donald Trump is concerned about alienating himself with his repeated attacks on influential Republican members of Congress — most recently Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN) — the White House threw the blame back on lawmakers.

“I don’t think he’s alienated anyone. I think Congress has alienated themselves by not actually getting the job done that the people of this country elected them to do,” White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Tuesday.

She blamed Republicans for not being able to repeal and replace Obamacare as “they all promised and campaigned on” and said the White House is hopeful for a different outcome when it comes to tax reform.

“We are certainly committed to that and think we’ll get there, but time and time again Congress has made promises and failed to deliver. If anyone is being alienated, it’s people who are promising things and not delivering,” she said.

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http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/republican-lawmakers-alienating-themselves

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White House: Trump IQ Test Challenge To Tillerson Was A ‘Joke’

By MATT SHUHAM Published OCTOBER 10, 2017 2:28 PM
White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Tuesday that President Donald Trump was just joking when he challenged Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to a competitive IQ test.

“The President certainly never implied that the secretary of state was not incredibly intelligent,” Sanders said at a press briefing. “He made a joke, nothing more than that.”

She added: “He has full confidence in the secretary of state. They had a great visit earlier today. And they are working hand in hand to move the president’s agenda forward.”

Responding to reports that Tillerson had called him a “moron,” Trump told Forbes in an interview published Tuesday: “I think it’s fake news, but if he did that, I guess we’ll have to compare IQ tests. And I can tell you who is going to win.”

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http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/sanders-trump-joke-iq-test-tillerson

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White House: University Should ‘Look Into’ Professor Critical Of Trump

By MATT SHUHAM Published OCTOBER 10, 2017 12:46 PM

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders late last week said that University of Nevada, Las Vegas administrators should “look into” a professor who said that “people will die” as a result of President Donald Trump’s election.

Sanders was responding to a secretly recorded video of assistant professor Tessa Winkelmann published Friday by the Las Vegas Review-Journal. Inside Higher Ed flagged Sanders’ statement on Monday.

In the video, recorded on Thursday, Winkelmann is seen telling students that she told her classes “three semesters ago” that “people will die because of this.” She also says “I don’t know that these events would have inevitably happened whether or not he got elected,” which some have interpreted as a reference to the mass shooting committed in Las Vegas on Oct. 1, four days prior to her comments.

“He’s threatened to declare violence against North Korea and other places, and words, especially if they’re coming from someone who is the President, have consequences. Right when he got elected, I told my classes, three semesters ago, that some of us won’t be affected by this presidency, but others are going to die. Other people will die because of this. And you’ve seen this happen, right. I don’t know that these events would have inevitably happened whether or not he got elected, but he has these kind of rhetorical powers every president has, to encourage or to discourage. So far all he’s done is to encourage violence.”

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http://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/sarah-huckabee-sanders-unlv-look-into-professor