President Donald Trump pitches 0% payroll tax rate for the rest of 2020: Officials

CNBC's Eamon Javers reports that White House officials have told him the president has pitched a permanent cut to the payroll tax.

President Donald Trump, in a meeting with Republican lawmakers Tuesday on Capitol Hill, pitched a 0% payroll tax rate for employers and employees that would last through the rest of this year, a White House official told CNBC.

There was also discussion of making the payroll tax rollback permanent, said the official, who declined to be named. Payroll taxes are used to fund Medicare and Social Security. When asked about the potential cost of a payroll tax cut, the official pushed back and asked why there is always a focus on the cost of tax cuts.

The development comes as Trump and the White House try to put together an economic stimulus plan to counteract the impact from the widening coronavirus outbreak. After a 2,000-point drop by the Dow Jones Industrial Average on Monday, the Dow bounced back somewhat Tuesday, rising 1,000 points late in the trading session.

Earlier Tuesday, CNBC reported that the White House was not ready to roll out a specific plan of action on the economy while the deadly coronavirus spreads. Trump stunned people in the White House on Monday, according to officials, when he said that he would announce economic policy proposals at a news conference Tuesday.

A press briefing with the White House coronavirus task force is slated for 5:30 p.m. ET Tuesday, according to Trump’s official schedule. The White House has also invited Wall Street executives to a meeting Wednesday to discuss an economic response to the coronavirus’s impact.

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