House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) is roasting Republicans as they joust internally for a deal on the state and local tax (SALT) deduction cap.
Jeffries said if Republicans were serious about helping taxpayers in high-income states, the solution is simple: Do nothing and let the cap expire, as scheduled, at year’s end.
“If nothing happens — if there is nothing done with respect to the state and local tax deduction cap by the end of the year — you know what happens? It goes away,” Jeffries told reporters in the Capitol. “So anything that Republicans are doing that relates to a cap actually will increase taxes on the American people, not lower taxes.”
Republican leaders are racing this month to draft legislation extending their 2017 tax cuts — a major piece of President Trump’s domestic agenda that GOP leaders are hoping to send to his desk this summer.
SALT has been a chief sticking point in that internal debate, pitting moderate Republicans in high-income states who want to eliminate, or at least lift, the $10,000 cap against conservatives who want to keep it in place to minimize the impact of Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” on deficit spending.
Jeffries is hardly sympathetic to their dilemma, noting that it was Trump and Republicans who created the $10,000 cap as part of their 2017 tax cuts — a bill opposed by every Democrat at the time.
“Let’s be clear, not a single Democrat supported capping the state and local tax deduction. That was done by Republicans when they enacted the GOP tax scam,” Jeffries said. “They crashed the car, and want to pretend now that they’re on a rescue operation.
“Give me a break.”
Supporters of the SALT cap maintain that it’s designed to prevent the wealthiest Americans from getting a federal tax break based on the taxes they pay to state and local governments. The critics say that’s a flawed premise, since regional differences in incomes and cost of living mean that the cap hits even some middle-class taxpayers in wealthier states like New York, California and Illinois.
“SALT is a matter of fairness. It’s not a subsidy,” Rep. Nick LaLota (R-N.Y.) told reporters Wednesday.
Republicans have returned to the tax-cut issue this year because many of the benefits adopted in the 2017 law sunset at the start of 2026. The SALT cap is one of them, as Jeffries was quick to remind Republicans on Thursday.
“The voters are smart enough to know that this whole effort is phony,” he said, “because Republicans imposed the cap in the first place and are doing nothing but tinkering around at the edges, as opposed to allowing the cap to disappear, which will happen if nothing is done.”
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