Trump pushes tax overhaul, says it’s ‘badly needed’

WASHINGTON (AP) President Donald Trump declared Wednesday that his push to overhaul the nation’s tax system would “bring back Main Street by reducing the crushing tax burden,” offering a populist appeal to a still-forming tax plan that would heavily benefit corporate America.

Trump said his vision for re-writing the nation’s tax system, one of his key campaign pledges, would unlock stronger economic growth and benefit companies and workers alike. He promised that it would be “pro-growth, pro-jobs, pro-worker and pro-American.”

“If we want to renew our prosperity and to restore opportunity then we must reduce the tax burden on our companies and on our workers,” Trump said in Springfield, Mo.

Trump chose a Midwestern manufacturing setting in Springfield to debut his pitch, a community that is known as the birthplace of the Route 66 highway.

After a year without any major legislative wins, including a significant defeat on health care, the stakes are high for the White House and Republican leaders, who face mounting pressure to get points on the board before next year’s midterm elections.

But the effort is already facing political headwinds. The White House and Republican lawmakers have not finalized a plan and the push comes amid an intense September workload for Congress.

While the White House has been designing a tax plan aimed at appealing to Republicans, Trump sought to cast the effort in bipartisan terms, calling upon members of both parties to work with him on the overhaul. “I think Congress is going to make a comeback,” Trump said.

But he also injected the official White House event with a purely political message aimed at Missouri Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill, a top Republican target in next year’s mid-term elections.

Trump said, “We have no choice, we must lower our taxes. And your senator, Claire McCaskill, she must do this for you. And if she doesn’t do it for you, you have got to vote her out of office,” Trump said.