But the nation's soaring debt will complicate any effort to slash taxes.

People in both parties have been working for more than two decades to engineer the first full-blown overhaul of the U.S. tax code since 1986. Since Trump first rolled out a series of broad-brush tax proposals in the heat of last year's presidential election campaign, tax policy watchdog groups have been eagerly awaiting more details of his plan. Many agreed Trump's initial proposals just didn't add up.

Trump swept into office based on high expectations of tax relief for middle-income workers, small businesses and global corporations, but it remains to be seen how the administration plans to offset any cuts in the more than $3 trillion the Treasury collects every year to keep the government funded.

To win approval from Republican budget hawks on Capitol Hill, the Trump administration will need to offset any proposal to lower taxes with cuts in spending. And, as many previous administrations have learned, there is little "discretionary" spending left to cut.

More than two-thirds of every federal dollar of tax revenue is considered "mandatory" spending, much of which is off-limits. That includes Social Security, Medicare and interest on the national debt.