GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: You and your colleagues have said the wealthy will not get a tax code under the plan. … [But] the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center calculates that 80 percent of the benefits will flow to the top 1 percent. We’re going to show that chart right now.

Almost every group getting a tax cut, but the wealthiest getting the most.

That’s just a fact, isn’t it?

STEVEN MNUCHIN, TREASURY SECRETARY: George, first of all, it’s great to be with you this morning. And, no, that’s not a fact.

As we release the details of the plan, we’ll show the — all the different impacts to different people. And as the president has said all along, the changes to the income-tax system are meant to create middle-income tax cuts and also make corporate and business tax competitive so we can bring back tons and tons of jobs and capital to this country.

STEPHANOPOULOS: I know that’s the objective, but based on the evidence you’ve put out so far, all those cuts I just talked about, that will benefit the wealthiest the most.

MNUCHIN: Well, George, I just don’t think that’s the case. As we’ve talked about, changes in the top bracket are offset with elimination of almost every single type of deduction, other than charitable giving and the mortgage interest deduction.

And, you know, this has impact to different people in different states, but again, we’ll go through all the details as we go through the congressional process of the House and the Senate and we’ll show all the distributions.

And as it relates to pass-throughs, this is about creating jobs. A huge component of the businesses in this country are pass-throughs and we want to make sure they have the necessary tax relief to go out and hire more workers and invest more capital.

STEPHANOPOULOS: You know, secretary, I just don’t understand how you can say, based on everything you’ve put out so far, that it’s not a tax cut for the wealthy. Even the vice president has said these are across-the-board tax cuts. The wealthy pay most of the taxes. They are getting tax cuts there. They are going to get benefits.

MNUCHIN: Well, George, in the high-tax states, the impact is about 5 or 6 percent. So if we cut the rate down to 35 percent, that’s actually an increase for the wealthy in the high-tax states. And as we’ve said, we’re considering what we do, if there is a need for a fourth bracket, to create more relief.

So this will all continue to go through the congressional process.

STEPHANOPOULOS: But eliminating the estate tax will only go to the wealthiest Americans, those that have estates greater than $11 million.

MNUCHIN: Well, you are correct in that sense. And, again, we’ve been talking about the income-tax system. As it relates to estate tax, you know, the death tax, we believe that people get taxed once and not twice. And that will enable them to keep lots of family businesses passed along.

But the estate tax, you are correct. The majority of the estate tax is paid by the wealthy. So we’re focused on changes to the income-tax system.

STEPHANOPOULOS: But you’ve proposed to eliminate the estate tax.