9 months ago
33
If there’s one thing that really motivates a GOP lawmaker, it’s cutting somebody’s taxes—provided they’re a wealthy somebody.
That’s proving true once again as a group of “centrist” Republicans is ganging up, threatening to block the big showcase tax bill Speaker Kevin McCarthy wants on the House floor before the August recess. These so-called “centrists” style themselves as moderates and the Capitol Hill press corps flatters them by accepting that characterization. But when it comes to the issues that affect millions of people—like abortion, voting, and LGBTQ+ rights—they couldn’t care less, as my colleague Kerry Eleveld noted in her story on Nancy Mace and the myth of the moderate Republican.
The line in the sand for about 10 of these Republicans is the federal deduction people can take for state and local taxes (primarily property taxes) known as SALT. The 2017 tax scam Republicans passed while Donald Trump was in office capped the SALT deduction at $10,000. Most of the people who use the SALT deduction are high earners, according to the Tax Foundation, more likely to itemize deductions under SALT rather than take the standard deduction.
