House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) said over the weekend that Republicans would "stick the landing" on a major tax reform bill after failing to repeal and replace President Barack Obama's health care reform law.
"It is more important to us than anything that we get tax reform done," Ryan told Fox Business host Maria Bartiromo. "Because we think it is absolutely critical for strong economic growth."
According to Ryan, Republicans are trying to fund President Donald Trump's border wall while lowering tax rates, which is expected to be a windfall for wealthy Americans.
"Getting consensus from the White House, the House and the Senate makes it much more of a viable enterprise," the Speaker opined. "I feel much more confident that we're going to stick the landing on tax reform because we have now said, 'We have consensus, here's the framework, let's go get it done.'"
"Good news," the Fox host replied.
Ryan explained that GOP lawmakers would use "dynamic scoring" to offset the cost of tax cuts with uncertain revenue from anticipated future growth.
"What that means is that we can have a big tax cut, but also make sure we are in compliance with our deficit targets," he opined, noting that additional revenue could come from cutting programs like welfare.
"I don't think we can get to 3 percent growth without tax reform," the Wisconsin Republican insisted. "I really believe the secret to getting to 3 percent growth -- clearly a goal we can achieve in this country -- regulatory relief, working on labor supply, welfare to work. But tax reform, you can't get to 3 percent growth in my opinion without tax reform. That's why this is so important. That's why we all agree."
