U.S. Senate majority leader says tax reform has to be "revenue-neutral"

U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said on Tuesday that the U.S. tax reform has to be "revenue-neutral" as the country has relatively high debt.

"It will have to be revenue-neutral. We have a 21 trillion (U.S.) dollar debt," McConnell said Tuesday in an interview with Bloomberg News, putting him at odds with U.S. President Donald Trump, who has called for significant tax cuts for businesses and individuals.

In an interview with The Economist that was published last week, Trump said "it is OK" for the tax reform to increase the fiscal deficit in the short term to boost U.S. economic growth.

However, the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget (CRFB), a nonpartisan watchdog group, estimated that Trump's tax reform could cause a total of 5.5 trillion U.S. dollars in revenue loss over a decade, and would boost the country's debt to GDP (gross domestic product) ratio to 111 percent by 2027.

"The country would need roughly 4.5 percent sustained growth to pay for the entire tax plan," said the CRFB, adding the tax reform could drive up the federal debt, harming economic growth instead of boosting it, without adequate offsets.

McConnell believed the U.S. should balance tax cuts with new sources of government revenue to avoid increase the fiscal deficit. However, the proposed border adjustment tax, which will tax imports while exempting exports, probably wouldn't pass the Senate, he said.

McConnell didn't commit to completing tax reform this year, a timeline set by the Trump administration. But he believed they could "get it done" under this Congress, noting it took several years for the country to complete the tax reform last time. Enditem