“Unless they want to be responsible for tanking the President’s legislative agenda, the ‘No SALT, No Deal’ caucus is going to have to figure out a Plan B,” Manley said. “I can’t imagine they are going to get everything they want.”
Options to lower the price tag include raising the deduction limit instead of lifting it completely or pursuing a short-term repeal of the cap.
In 2019 Suozzi sponsored legislation that aimed to double the cap to $20,000 that year for married couples filing jointy, then temporarily repeal the cap for the following two years. Both of those changes would only have applied to people making under $100 million a year.
That bill passed the House, but 16 Democrats voted against it, including New York Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez who has described a full repeal as a “gift to billionaires.” Democratic leadership is dealing with a much narrower majority this Congress and can’t afford to lose that many votes with no Republicans expected to support the reconciliation package.
The nonpartisan Joint Committee on Taxation has estimated that repealing the SALT cap would cut taxes for more than 13 million people, but 99% of the benefits would go to people earning $100,000 or more.
New Jersey Representative Josh Gottheimer, a Democrat who also co-leads the SALT Caucus, said taxes went up on the middle class in New Jersey after the cap went into effect, driving people to move to states with a lower cost of living. He said Thursday that his position remains that the cap must be fully repealed.
“This is an existential threat to Jersey,” Gottheimer said.
This article was provided by Bloomberg News.