Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said extending all the 2017 tax cuts won by former President Donald Trump would lead to "serious concerns" over the federal budget deficit.
If he returns to office, Trump intends to make the individual cuts from the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act permanent and to keep corporate tax levels unchanged, according to
To extend "all of the things in TCJA set to expire without finding new revenue sources to cover everything that's left in would be a serious concern given the projections for the deficit," Yellen told reporters Monday following a speech in Vienna, Virginia.
Yellen also deflected a question on whether she now supports seizing sovereign Russian assets and using them to help rebuild Ukraine. The Group of Seven countries is set to debate that option at an upcoming meeting.
"G-7 leaders asked that options be developed and the matter be studied, and to the extent there are risks that they be evaluated," she said. "But certainly no decision has been made."
Yellen said she'd want to see an assessment of the potential risks posed to the international role of the US dollar and whether "mitigation" could be put in place against such risks.
For now, however, the G-7 must agree on an "international law rationale," she said.
In the past, Yellen has said Congress would have to pass new legislation for the U.S. to participate in the seizure of any sovereign foreign assets.
Trump cuts
The Trump tax cuts are emerging as a hot-button issue for the 2024 presidential election, especially because the cuts for individuals written into that law expire at the end of 2025. The corporate tax cuts that are also part of that legislation are permanent.
Trump and Republicans have claimed the cuts would provide relief to taxpayers and spur economic growth. Democrats and many economists have said the cuts overwhelmingly benefited wealthy households, increased the deficit and did little for the economy.
The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office
After adjusting to remove the impact of the Biden administration's student-loan forgiveness program — which was struck down by the Supreme Court — the fiscal 2023 deficit totaled
Yellen said Biden supported extending individual tax cuts under TCJA for households earning below $400,000 a year, though she added that new revenue sources would have to be found to pay for those.
She said the administration would propose a number of new potential revenue sources in its next budget.
