Tax reform only a half percent boost to economy? OMB Director Mulvaney weighs in

One of the key selling points of the Republican tax reform push is that it would boost U.S. economic growth, but Rep. Kevin Brady (R-Texas) told the FOX Business Network’s Stuart Varney that if the House tax reform bill were passed today, “Most economists believe it will grow by about a half percent at a minimum it looks like.”

Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney responded to Rep. Brady’s comments on “Varney & Co.,” saying “I’m not sure where Kevin’s getting his numbers and I’m not sure what that half is being added to.”

According to Mulvaney, despite expectations of achieving the goal of at least 3% sustained growth by 2019 or 2020, the U.S. economy is there already with 3.1% growth in the second quarter and 3% in the third quarter.

“If Kevin says that we can only get, you know, another half percentage point on top of it from [reform], if that takes us from 3% to 3.5%, then that’s great, I’m interested in staying above 3% on a sustained basis.”

Mulvaney then weighed in on the timetable for getting tax reform legislation signed, sealed and delivered by the end of 2017, telling Varney, “I still think not only are we on schedule there, we’re slightly ahead of schedule because of the rapidity with which the House passed the Senate budget about 10 days ago, so things are actually slightly, slightly ahead of schedule as we stand here today.”