Sen. Coons: “There are Democrats like me who would like to work across the aisle to find ways to reduce the tax rate and to broaden the base and to find a way to do that that increases tax relief for the middle class, that's what president has said is his goal, but we're only going to get there if we have a bipartisan and open process.”

Sen. Coons: “I'm principally concerned about not having baked into this a massive cut to Medicare, not paying for tax cuts by taking away access to health care benefits for millions of Americans.”

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Chris Coons (D-Del.), a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, joined CNBC’s “Squawk Box” this morning to discuss tax reform.

“There are some concerns already being expressed in the Senate by both Republicans and Democrats that the amount that it would raise the deficit and potentially add to the debt is too large, that the details are not yet clear, and that the process that has gotten us thus far was too much of a secret behind closed doors one party only deal,” said Senator Coons. “There are Democrats like me who would like to work across the aisle to find ways to reduce the tax rate and to broaden the base and to find a way to do that that increases tax relief for the middle class, that's what president has said is his goal, but we're only going to get there if we have a bipartisan and open process." 

Full audio and video are available here.

Excerpts from the interview: 

Senator Coons on tax reform: So far, as you said, we don't have a bill we have a broad gauzy outline. There are some concerns already being expressed in the Senate by both Republicans and Democrats that the amount that it would raise the deficit and potentially add to the debt is too large, that the details are not yet clear, and that the process that has gotten us thus far was too much of a secret behind closed doors one party only deal. There are Democrats like me who would like to work across the aisle to find ways to reduce the tax rate and to broaden the base and to find a way to do that that increases tax relief for the middle class, that's what president has said is his goal, but we're only going to get there if we have a bipartisan and open process. 

Senator Coons on whether Republicans’ concerns will be met and they’ll be able to do this on their own: The outline we've seen so far includes cutting $470 billion from Medicare in the ten years ahead. It included eliminating the deduction for state and local property taxes, both of those I think will prove to be unpopular. Senator Bob Corker, Senator Rand Paul, both of whom have a willingness to buck their caucus for matters of principle, have already said they're likely opposed to it, so Majority Leader Mitch McConnell will have great difficulty rounding up 50 votes if he’s going into this with two already expressing very real concerns. This is the same thing that happened with the health care reform package, something that was done really one party, without hearings, without an open process and ultimately failed. They only have a few months to get this done, actually a few weeks of legislative time, so my hope is they'll get the details clarified soon and start working in an open and bipartisan process.

More on tax reform: The core question is whether these have to be paid for in some way and whether the pay for is simply going to be aspirational economics, believing there's going to be more than 3% growth as a result of tax cuts, or having to identify an offset, a pay for. 

More on tax reform: That's right. Senator Corker has expressed real concern about whether there will be anything like the growth required to cover a multi-trillion dollar tax cut, and I think he has a reasonable concern there. 

Senator Coons on what issues would make him come to the table: President Trump has said that what he wants is a tax cut that primarily benefits America's middle class and there's things that we can and should do that I think would make American companies more competitive internationally, that would make them more likely to invest in infrastructure and capital expenditures and that would expand some successful tax breaks that benefit middle class families. Some of those are in the broad brush document, but some of those issues are not addressed in a plan that right now is skewed too heavily towards the wealthiest.

Senator Coons on the estate tax: Yes, that’s one. I look at that up front and it suggests to me that this will overly benefit the wealthy given what the president said his objective is, but we also don't have a JCT score, Joint Committee on Tax, we don’t know how it will play out because we don't have a bill and there aren’t details yet. 

Senator Coons on whether maintaining the highest income tax level for the wealthiest Americans would satisfy his concerns: That might satisfy others in my caucus. I'm principally concerned about not having baked into this a massive cut to Medicare, not paying for tax cuts by taking away access to health care benefits for millions of Americans. And I'd like to see us do more for capital investment for manufacturing, for renewables by making permanent provisions of the code that help to accelerate growth.

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