Appearing on Monday’s Breitbart News Daily with SiriusXM host Alex Marlow, Breitbart News Executive Chairman Stephen K. Bannon analyzed the Republican tax reform bill as a “another Reagan-type tax cut on marginal tax rates” designed to “make American corporations competitive, as far as tax rates go.”
“It’s a pretty big marginal tax cut, and the theory is that this is going to create additional jobs,” he elaborated. “Now, if you look at what was done just on economic nationalism, which nobody wants to talk about, President Trump right now has delivered 3.3 percent growth. They would mock and laugh at President Trump when he was saying as a candidate – you know the Obama years were 1.5 to 1.9 percent. This is not a continuation of the Obama policies. This is President Trump’s jawboning. This is why the animal spirits are up in the United States.”
“What I mean by that is the driving motive force of capitalism: people having confidence, people wanting to invest,” he explained. “Companies are investing from overseas because they understand the days of the United States being a patsy – whether it’s on NAFTA, whether it’s on the course to deal with Korea, whether it’s Japan, even with China, those days are over.”
“We’re going to start having meaningful trade deals that protect American workers and American jobs,” he anticipated. “You see unemployment overall at a 17-year low, I think black unemployment is a 16 or 17-year low, Hispanics like a 15-year low. You’re seeing wages start to come up, start to increase, in places like agriculture and construction, particularly among black and Hispanic working class people.”
Bannon added a 3.9 percent growth forecast from the New York Fed, which he called “the highest number they’ve ever projected,” even before the tax cut plan is signed into law.
“Is this tax cut perfect? The answer is no,” he added. “Is it really fundamental tax reform, like I think people are looking for and can happen after the ’18 elections, which I still think is another bite of the apple there?”
“I think Paul Ryan’s border-adjustable tax ought to get a full vetting at that time,” Bannon encouraged, referring to a proposal of the House speaker’s that he saw as more in line with the principles of “economic nationalism” than the current tax bill.
“What this is, is to make American corporations more competitive. It’s also to repatriate these trillions of dollars of cash that are back there. Would I like more focus on making that money go into plant and equipment to create more manufacturing jobs? Absolutely. Is there enough restrictions on that? I don’t think so, and I think some of this will definitely be used for stock buybacks and for dividends, which have not been particularly for economic nationalists that want plant and equipment built. It’s not our favorite, but it won’t do any harm, certainly,” he judged.
Bannon hoped the Republican tax plan would act as an “accelerant for President Trump’s policies that are already working.”
“Now, I think you’re going to go from not just low unemployment; I think we’re going to start talking about good-paying jobs and wages increasing,” he predicted.
“I was in favor of a significant tax increase, up to 42 or 44 percent, for people making over five million dollars a year,” he noted. “My thinking being, if Silicon Valley, Wall Street, and Hollywood is so gung-ho on the progressive portfolio of ideas that are pushed by the left all the time, they ought to start paying for it instead of getting a free ride.”
Bannon predicted the tax bill would not emerge from conference until close to Christmas since there is “a lot of wood to chop” in terms of amendments and modifications. He advised keeping a close eye on what happens to small entrepreneurs and pass-through taxes.
“To me, it’s very important that this bill focus on small entrepreneurs. They’re the real creators of jobs out there,” he said.
“To all the ‘deplorables,’ as you go into work today, just remember one thing: Look at this economy. Look at what he’s done with ISIS. Look how he’s handling this crisis in the Gulf. Look how he’s handling the situation with China. If Barack Obama had gone to Riyadh and given that speech to the Muslim nations and destroyed the physical caliphate of ISIS, they would have given him a second Nobel Prize. Donald Trump did it, and they just dismiss him,” Bannon said.
“This economy, this is pure Trump economics,” he continued. “President Trump thought this through. He knew what he was doing. He says, ‘Hey, I want to get tough on trade. I want to get tough on illegal immigration. I want to show the nations of the world that they’ve got to start investing in the United States. They’ve got to start building plant and equipment here. We’ve got to start making stuff here. And then I’m going to have a massive tax cut to make sure that corporations are competitive globally.’”
“You see what’s happening. If Barack Obama had done this, I mean the anemic growth he had, if he had done this, they would have given him a Nobel Prize in economics, not just in peace,” Bannon said.
“Every day you hear this drumbeat from the nullification project – and that’s what it is, folks; it’s the nullification project,” he told the audience. “And here’s who they’re trying to nullify. They’re not trying to nullify President Trump or Donald J. Trump. They’re trying to nullify you. You put him in office. You’ve had his back through thick and thin – and by the way, there’s been both thick, and there’s been think, okay? – and you’ve had his back the entire time. They hate that. They want to take your voice away. They want to try to destroy President Trump. It’s one of the reasons I admire President Trump.”
Bannon recommended the new book Let Trump Be Trump: The Inside Story of His Rise to the Presidency by Corey Lewandowski and Dave Bossie for a look at how the Trump campaign and White House truly operate.
“Trump isn’t the easiest guy to work with some days,” said Bannon, who worked as the chief strategist for the White House in the first half of 2017. “But the guys that work for him, the men and women that work for him, just love the guy and know that, as a man, he’s a leader and showed tremendous courage.”
“This nullification project that the mainstream media, the establishment, the Democratic left, the progressive community, and the Republican establishment – they’re all out there to shut down your voice. But just look at the guy’s actions and the result of the actions,” he advised.
Marlow noted that President Trump’s lawyer Ty Cobb, who “made a fool of himself” by predicting Mueller’s investigation would be over by Thanksgiving, is now predicting it will conclude by January.
“As a guy that’s worked for President Trump, I’m a big believer in giving him a date and sticking to the date,” Bannon remarked. “You give me a date, hit the date, brother! You’ve got to hit the date. I’ll leave it at that and throw it to Ty Cobb.”
Bannon pointed to what he described as a “huge story” and “some of the best breaking news out there” from investigative reporter John Solomon of the Hill about whistleblower testimony on the Clintons’ Uranium One scandal.
“The guys at the Hill are killing it on this investigation of Uranium One,” he said. “This thing stinks to high heaven, and people ought to get all over it.
Breitbart News Daily airs on SiriusXM Patriot 125 weekdays from 6 a.m. to 9 a.m. Eastern.
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