Through a rarely used stipulation of the Congressional Review Act, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer will force a vote for tax cuts on the wealthy. Specifically, he will be trying to repeal the relatively new cap on the state and local tax (SALT) deduction, so that uber-wealthy taxpayers living in high-tax jurisdictions can get a special tax break once again.
The cap on the SALT deduction, one of the signature successes of President Trump’s fiscal agenda, forced states with punitive tax rates to live with the consequences of their mismanagement. The lower the cap, the more of a fair share the Blue State wealthy must pay. Rather than allow the wealthy in Blue States to pass off their taxes onto the rest of the country using the SALT deduction, Trump capped the deduction at a very reasonable $10,000.
The SALT deduction ought to be eliminated, but the cap was undeniably a step in the right direction.
Naturally, Schumer wants to undo it, helping blue state donors and reducing federal tax revenue by more than $600 billion over the next decade. This would exacerbate our multi-trillion dollar deficit, all so that the wealthiest Americans can get a tax cut. It almost sounds like something Democrats would normally speak out against.
Repealing the SALT deduction cap does absolutely nothing to help the poor, and everything to benefit the wealthy based on the political affiliation of their state. As Brian Riedl at the Manhattan Institute notes, 96% of the benefit would go to the top quintile of earners, and 56% would go to the supposedly reviled “1%.”
Make no mistake, Democrats love tax cuts for the wealthy — just as long as they go to the right wealthy people.
