"I am here just for this reason. Think about the opportunity I'm involved in with President Trump, being able to rewrite the tax code."
by Jon Queally
Though President Donald Trump's top economic advisor Gary Cohn previously said he felt "enormous pressure" to resign his position from the administration after the president's disastrous equivocating on white supremacy and racism in the wake of a violent protest by neo-nazis in Charlottesville, Virginia earlier this year, he made clear at a Thursday press conference why he ultimately opted to stay for a very specific purpose: a chance to give massive tax cuts to the nation's corporations and wealthy.
"Why am I here?" Cohn said in response to a question by the New York Times' Jeff Zeleny. "I am here just for this reason. Think about the opportunity I'm involved in with President Trump, being able to rewrite the tax code – something that hasn't been done in thirty-one years... This is a once in a lifetime opportunity and I would never miss this."
Watch:
Cohn on why he decided to stay at WH in the wake Charlottesville: Tax reform is a "once in a lifetime opportunity" https://t.co/pfFm8awxFG
— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) September 28, 2017
As analysis after analysis has shown, the outline of the tax reform put forth by the White House is undeniably and specifically geared toward giving the nation's wealthiest corporations and families tax cuts at the expense of social service programs that will inevitably be targeted in the face of dwindling revenues those giveways will create in the years and decades ahead.
And though Cohn himself said he struggled in the wake of Charlottesville—and reportsindicated he even drafted a resignation letter—his comments on Thursday make it pretty clear that nothing remains more important to him than the chance to give massive tax relief to the Americans who deserve and need it least: the filthy rich like his former colleagues at Goldman Sachs and his new billionaire boss at the White House.
Gary Cohn stood behind "both sides" DJT after #Charlottesville, so that he could introduce this #TaxReform? The pay must be good.
— Sam Seaborn (@FakeSamSeaborn) September 28, 2017
Gary Cohn stuck with Trump after Charlottesville in order to sell tax cuts for the wealthy. What a guy. https://t.co/bo57BFRnZX
— SingingFriar (@singingfriar) September 28, 2017