Donald Trump adviser Anthony Scaramucci says the key to Trump’s success is getting across his message on taxes.
In an interview with Fortune’s digital editor Aaron Task, Scaramucci says that one of the keys to Donald Trump’s economic plan is to simplify the tax code. In fact, Scaramucci says simplification is even more important than lowering taxes on businesses when it comes to boost the economy.
“You can set it and make it revenue neural,” says Scaramucci. “Just a simplification will be better than what we have got going on now.”
Scaramucci says one of the big things that have come up in his meetings with other Trump economic advisors is how to set up the tax code so that it encourages companies not just to hoard their money, or hand it back to shareholders, but to invest in their businesses or their workers. “It’s tricky,” says Scaramucci. “But we can do that if we get the right focus and the attention.”
Scaramucci’s hedge fund firm SkyBridge Capital, regularly invests in so-called shareholder activists, which often push for companies to use their cash to buyback stock rather than invest it expanding their businesses. Reforming the tax code to promote investment would likely need to entail doing something that would make buybacks, which generally get better tax treatment, less attractive to companies and investors.
Other Trump advisors have urged the candidate to focus more on taxes. Earlier this week, another Trump advisor Larry Kudlow said that he thought Hillary Clinton had won the first presidential debate because Trump didn’t spend enough time talking about taxes and other economic issues.
Last month, Scaramucci told Fortune that Trump was gaining traction among Wall Streeters, and raising more and more money from hedge funds and others in the finance industry.
Trump has called for reducing the individual tax code to three brackets. But cutting taxes is a big push for the GOP candidate as well. A recent analysis of Trump’s tax and budget plan said that it would increase the deficit by $5.4 billion over the next decade.
On top of taxes, Scaramucci says cutting and simplifying regulations is another important part of Trump’s economic growth plan. Scaramucci says Trump plans to do a review to figure out what regulations we really don’t need. “Let’s go to every regulatory agency and say tells us the regulations you don’t need, let’s cut out 10%,” says Scaramucci. “That sends a message to everyone in the executive suite, both small and big businesses, you know what America is open for business again.”
On Thursday, the government revised up second quarter GDP to a growth of 1.4%. That was up from the 0.8% the U.S. economy grew in the first quarter. Next week, the government is expected to announce that U.S. employers added 175,000 jobs in September. That would be the 71 month of consecutive job growth.
