Mulvaney: If ObamaCare Mandate Repeal Needs to Come out to Pass Tax Cuts, ‘We Could Live with That’

JOHN DICKERSON: And we’re back with Mick Mulvaney, the director of White House Office of Management and Budget. Mister Director, I want to start with the individual mandate. That’s something the President wants. It’s in the bill now, in part, in the Senate to just make the numbers add up. If it was taken out, would the President be okay with maybe cutting that corporate rate to twenty-two percent all the way down to twenty to make up that money that they need in the Senate?

MICK MULVANEY (White House Budget Director/@MickMulvaneyOMB): No. I don’t think so. I— I don’t think anybody doubts where the President is on repeal and replace. The White House would love to see Obamacare taken apart all at once, bit by bit, however we can do it. That being said there’s a couple of things that the President has been very clear on from the very beginning. Number one, the middle class, ordinary Americans working folks have to pay less and it has to be simpler. And number two, that corporate tax rate has to be as low as possible. Originally wanted it at fifteen percent. We agreed with the House and Senate leadership to go to twenty percent as part of the early discussions here. And I don’t think you’ll see its interest going above twenty percent. So I think at the end of the day, John, what we’re interested in is the best tax bill that can pass. If a good tax bill can pass with that Obamacare mandate repeals part of it, great. If it needs to come out in order for that good tax bill to pass, we could live with that as well.