“I’m in favor of doing tax reform,” he said, “but I think tax reform ought to be revenue-neutral as it was back during the Reagan years. We’ve resolved this issue. Look, we don’t have this problem because we tax too little. We have it because we spend way, way too much.”
Hidden message … the next real issue is tax reform. BUT there is actually no such thing as “tax neutral” tax reform. A HUGE part of the deficit comes from tax expenditures. If these are removed or revised, the effect will be to raise taxes. Some fuzzy veil will be made that this is tax neutral because the reforms will make the economy more productive.