House Republicans on Monday unveiled one of the most critical pieces of President Donald Trump’s domestic agenda: How it plans to spend trillions of dollars on tax breaks.
The long-awaited tax plans include some of Trump’s big campaign promises, including scrapping federal taxes on tips, on overtime pay and on car loan interest. It’s a big win for Trump, as is the name of the bill — “The One, Big, Beautiful Bill,” adopting the president’s moniker for the legislation.
As expected, it also includes Trump’s demand for a debt limit hike, which would cost a total of $4 trillion to punt the problem for another few years. Congress needs to raise the debt limit before its August recess to prevent default and Trump hopes to do so using this bill, rather than strike a deal with Democrats.
The bill includes dozens of tax extensions from Trump’s 2017 tax bill. There’s also one relatively new idea – a so-called “MAGA” savings account for kids under 18 years old. It’s short for “money account for growth and advancement,” and would create a new, flexible type of tax-free savings account for kids.
One headache in the GOP it does not solve: The battle over state and local taxes. House Republicans’ tax bill would triple the current cap on state and local taxes, from $10,000 to $30,000 per year, but is limited to people who are making $400,000 or less.
Republicans from high-tax states, such as New York, New Jersey and California, have already rejected this policy publicly and in private, though it’s unclear how much leverage they have to change it before the final bill. Some of those GOP lawmakers have privately demanded a cap as large as $60,000.
‘Still a hell no’: Some in GOP swift to anger over SALT provisions
Moderates within the GOP were quick to criticize the proposed Republican tax plan released Monday because of its SALT provisions.
The far-right flank also appeared far from sold.
“I remain open-minded because progress has been made based on our forceful efforts to force change. But we cannot continue down the path we’ve been going down – and we will need SIGNIFICANT additional changes to garner my support,” Rep. Chip Roy of Texas wrote on X.
Outlining a lengthy list of concerns, Roy wrote: “Does the bill meaningfully reduce the deficit?.. Does the bill offer ANY transformative changes on Medicaid or otherwise?.. Does the bill fully repeal the IRA to stop the devastatingly bad projects being implemented in my district? …Does the bill fix judicial abuses preventing implementation of the President’s agenda to deport?”
New York Republicans, including Reps. Elise Stefanik, Mike Lawler, Andrew Garbarino and Nick LaLota had already said last week that a $30,000 SALT cap was too low to win their support.
Pressed last week on a proposed $30,000 cap, LaLota said “hell no” that wasn’t acceptable.
Responding Monday on X after seeing the proposed text, he said: “Still a hell no.”
CNN’s Manu Raju, Lauren Fox and Morgan Rimmer contributed to this report.
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