House Republicans' battle over SALT income cap holding up deduction hike

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: Politico

05/06/2025 10:23 AM EDT


Everything seems aligned for blue-state Republicans to finally win their long-fought battle to raise the cap on the state and local tax deduction, with President Donald Trump and House GOP leadership in their corner — up to a point. There’s just one problem: The so-called SALT Republicans are fighting among themselves and with other GOP lawmakers about key details.

The conflict is hampering efforts by GOP leaders to set up a vote next week by the House Ways and Means Committee on Republicans’ sweeping tax package. One of the biggest sticking points is whether there should be some sort of income cap on qualifying for the deduction, which is particularly valuable to homeowners in areas with high property taxes.

“I don’t see that there’s a real interest from anybody, Republican or Democrat, in helping millionaires and billionaires,” said Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-N.Y.), a member of the SALT caucus and Ways and Means. “There’s a lot of opinions on that, but I support some type of income cap, or at a minimum, just targeting to take in middle class families.” Malliotakis suggested last week that a proposal to lift the current $10,000 cap on the deduction should aim to cover individuals “under the $400,000-500,000 range.”

But a handful of Malliotakis’s colleagues who represent some of the wealthiest districts in the SALT caucus are strongly opposed to any income cap, arguing there are already restrictions in place. The list includes New York Republicans Mike Lawler, Andrew Garbarino, Nick LaLota and Young Kim of California, who have said any tax legislation must include SALT relief to have a chance of passing the House. “I oppose a 400K income cap because, like the 2017 SALT cap, it hits New Yorkers harder than most Americans,” LaLota said.

Read more: https://www.politico.com/news/2025/05/06/salt-republicans-internal-squabbling-holding-up-deduction-hike-00330462

[JustAnotherGen]

1. I've had

Great feedback from my Republican Congressman on this. It really hurts a family of four in Hunterdon County NJ making $115K a year. Note - our K-12 schools performance has made us number one in education in NJ this year. We fully fund our schools, PD, FD, Public Works, etc. etc.

And it's not new. The 16th Amendment was finally fully ratified in 1913 and with that the 1913 Revenue Act with deductions for all State, county, school, and municipal taxes paid. It was to prevent double taxation. It is a cornerstone of Federalism.

What the maga Publican party did in 2017 was a deliberate and malicious attack on Blue States. And these GOP congress folks in Blue States know they cannot win if SALT is not lifted.

That family of 4? They sent another $3K to the Fed Gov this year. They don't have to send their kids to a 'christian academy' because their property taxes are $9K a year. That means they only got to deduct 1K of their State Income Taxes. Oh - btw - she works for the county as a daycare employee, and he is a member of our Borough Public Works team.

They work hard - they need to get their money back. This is NOT right.

[IbogaProject]

2. It was one of may tricks to lower the CBO score.

Also having lots of the breaks expire next tax year so the CBO score was artificially reduced, even with the wealthy income tax cut being permanent had its true cost obscured.