Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez wants to raise taxes on the rich.
The New York Democrat wore a dress to the Met Gala on Monday making that clear, as she has many other times.
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But while Ocasio-Cortez thinks that the rich don’t pay enough in taxes, some of her Democratic colleagues in Congress have a different opinion: They are pushing for a federal income tax break for the wealthy, including the kinds of people who attend the Met Gala. Those Democrats want to lift the cap on the state and local tax deduction.
To her credit, Ocasio-Cortez is one of the few congressional Democrats who doesn’t want it to happen. She voted with Republicans in 2019 against changing the $10,000 cap on the SALT deduction to a $20,000 cap; she was only one of 16 Democrats to take that position and the only member of “the Squad.”
However, Democrats Tom Suozzi of New York, Bill Pascrell of New Jersey, and Ways and Means Chairman Richard Neal of Massachusetts put out a statement this week reiterating their support for raising the cap. They want the plan included in President Joe Biden’s $3.5 trillion “Build Back Better” agenda.
“President Biden’s historic Build Back Better plan is one of the most significant bills Congress has ever considered,” they wrote. “Its makeup is complex and will be shaped and crafted continuously to get it right. So what we consider now is an important step in the process, but not the final step. With Speaker Pelosi, we continue to work among our colleagues and the Senate to undo the short-sighted capping of SALT by Republicans. We are committed to enacting a law that will include meaningful SALT relief that is so essential to our middle-class communities and we are working daily toward that goal.”
Members of AOC’s party are lying and saying that raising the SALT cap will somehow benefit the middle class. It’s a highly regressive tax break designed for people in blue states, and raising the cap would needlessly run up the federal deficit.
The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities says that about half of SALT deduction benefits would go to the top 1%, while 80% of the benefits would go to the top 5% if the cap were gone. That means the bottom 95% of income earners would only get 20% of the benefit, while people who pay less than $10,000 in state and local income tax receive no benefit at all. In a state with no state income tax, many people won’t reach that amount.
If someone chooses to live in Manhattan and have a beach house in the Hamptons, they shouldn’t get a special, massive federal income tax break for it.
The way to lower the state and local tax burden is to lower the tax burdens at the state and local levels. New York, California, and New Jersey should address their spending problems instead of sending less money to Washington to fund national defense, healthcare subsidies, and other parts of the federal government.
A permanently expanded child tax credit or child allowance is a better way to help working families and the middle class. Democrats should drop this gift to their donor class and focus on what’s better for families instead.
Tom Joyce (@TomJoyceSports) is a political reporter for the New Boston Post in Massachusetts. He is also a freelance writer who has been published in USA Today, the Boston Globe, Newsday, ESPN, the Detroit Free Press, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, the Federalist, and a number of other outlets.
