Welcome to Washington: Senators Prepare To Throw New York Republicans Under the Bus on Local Tax Cap

With just five or so weeks to go until America breaches its debt limit, Republicans are running out of time to pass President Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act. Some last-minute tweaks by Republican senators could upset a critical voting bloc — GOP lawmakers from the New York suburbs. Welcome to Washington, where this past week Mr. Trump was trying to twist senators’ arms to get them to strike a deal on his signature tax and budget bill. Following a meeting at the White House, lawmakers were left with little direction from the president, who simply told them to get to “yes” as soon as possible. One of the most important provisions of the tax portion of the bill is the State and Local Tax deduction cap. A limit on the SALT deduction was signed by Mr. Trump himself in 2017, setting the cap for individuals and couples alike at $10,000. In the House, Republicans from Westchester County, upstate New York, and Long Island forced Speaker Johnson to quadruple that cap to $40,000 for those who make less than $500,000 annually. New Yorkers hailed it as a win, though senators are wary of keeping the provision in the bill. “There’s not a single senator from New York or New Jersey or California” who is now in the Senate Republican conference, the chairman of the Finance Committee, Senator Crapo, told reporters this week. Any hike in the SALT deduction cap, studies have found, would send the vast majority of the benefit to states like New York, New Jersey, Maryland, and Massachusetts. Mr. Crapo made the admission shortly after a meeting with his tax-writing Finance Committee colleagues at the White House, where they sat down with the president himself. Mr. Crapo rarely speaks off-the-cuff, and almost always brushes reporters off by saying he does not disclose specifics about closed-door policy negotiations. That the Finance Committee’s chairman would point out to reporters the lack of blue-state Republican senators likely signals that he and his colleagues are getting ready to throw New Yorkers — and other pro-SALT cap hike Republicans — under the bus. The majority leader, Senator Thune, confirmed as much to the Sun after the meeting with the president at the White House, which the Republican leader himself attended alongside members of the Finance Committee. “There’s always discussions about SALT,” Mr. Thune said with a laugh during a brief interview just off the Senate floor on Wednesday. The president “just wants us to find a landing spot that enables us to pass the bill.” It was hardly an endorsement of keeping the SALT cap at the $40,000 level as currently written. Another member of the Finance Committee, Senator Lankford, also signaled that a fight is coming with his New York friends. He told the Sun this week that there is no number that senators have yet agreed on, though a change will likely have to be made. When asked by the Sun what he thought of the New York Republicans again threatening to kill any Senate version of the bill that touches that $40,000 SALT cap, Mr. Lankford made clear his feelings on the subject, though he did not have to use his words. “I hear ’em,” he said with a wide, knowing grin. One of the most outspoken members of the SALT caucus, Congressman Nick LaLota, represents the eastern tip of Long Island. He says a $40,000 cap is the bare minimum for him and his colleagues. If the Senate even touches that number, then he’ll vote against the bill once it returns to the House. “The $10K SALT cap from 2017 punished my constituents,” who, he added, “already send far more to Washington than they get back,” Mr. LaLota wrote on X as talk of a Senate betrayal was swirling this week. “The House’s $40K fix is a tough compromise that makes 92 percent of them whole.“If the Senate cuts it by even a dollar, I’m a hard NO on OBBB,” Mr. LaLota writes.

Welcome to Washington: Senators Prepare To Throw New York Republicans Under the Bus on Local Tax Cap

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