Trump expressed his frustration with recent economic growth rates Wednesday, saying that trade deficits were to blame.

“The U.S. recorded its slowest economic growth in five years (2016),” Trump tweeted. “GDP up only 1.6%. Trade deficits hurt the economy very badly.”

Another leaked provision of Trump’s plan, the 15 percent rate for pass-through businesses, creates its own challenges. The tax would apply to small businesses, hedge funds and Trump’s own business empire -- firms that organize themselves as partnerships or limited-liability companies. Under current law, those companies pass their earnings and deductions through to their owners, who are then taxed at their individual income-tax rates. The highest such rate is 39.6 percent.

Under Trump’s plan, high-earning individuals would have a keen incentive to turn themselves into companies for tax purposes -- to take advantage of the lower rate. Trump’s campaign advisers said they’d work with Congress to figure out a way to prevent that. There’s also the revenue effect of making the change; Roberton Williams, a tax expert at the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center, said the pass-through provision alone could increase the deficit by hundreds of billions of dollars.

Revenue Raiser

The repatriation-tax proposal, on the other hand, would be a revenue-raiser -- but it’s unclear whether it’d be a one-time event or one that would carry forward.

The tax represents an attempt to reconcile a quirk of the U.S. tax system. Unlike most developed nations, the U.S. applies its 35 percent corporate income tax to companies on their global earnings, not just their U.S. income. But companies can defer taxes on their overseas profits until they decide to return those earnings to the U.S., or “repatriate” them. During his campaign, Trump spoke of ending such deferral, but it’s unclear whether he intends to stick to that plan now.

In their eagerness to defer U.S. taxes, companies have stockpiled an estimated $2.6 trillion offshore -- though Trump has said repeatedly he believes the number is far higher.

Ryan and House leaders have their own version of a repatriation tax also -- they’d impose an 8.75 percent rate on earnings held offshore as cash or cash equivalents and a 3.5 percent rate on earnings that have been invested otherwise.

Corporate Non-Starter