It won’t carry nearly the same honor as that of my grandfather’s comrades who were dying on a literal hill in the South Pacific, 80 years ago today. Still, Republican members of Congress should summon up their resolve and stand ready to let the “one, big, beautiful bill,” or OBBB, die on the hill of significantly higher SALT exemptions.
The current SALT cap allows taxpayers in states with high state and local taxes to deduct up to $10,000 off their total federal income tax bill. The OBBB would raise the SALT deduction cap to $30,000 for those with incomes less than $400,000. This is very generous. Sadly, a small handful of Republicans refuse to recognize as much. With a public display of distinct arrogance, a group led by Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY) is pushing for far greater concessions.
Republicans should say no.
Frankly, even the $10,000 deduction should not exist in the first place. After all, it is profoundly and unequivocally unfair to allow higher-wealth people to pay a lower percentage of their total income in federal taxes simply because they choose to live in states with higher state and local taxes. If they want to pay lower taxes, these people should relocate to states with lower taxes. Alternatively, they should organize political campaigns to reduce taxes in their existing states. But that would require the choice of personal responsibility over cronyism in Congress.
Even more absurdly, as my colleague Tiana Lowe Doescher notes, Lawler and company lack the courage to say what they want from House Speaker Mike Johnson. They presumably fear that stating their desired SALT payoff in public would spark even greater fury from their fellow Republicans. Doescher adds, “The grand irony of Lawler’s threat to sink the bill is that even with the $10,000 — again, a full three times as restrictive as what GOP leadership has included in the OBBB — every income bracket in Lawler’s district still saw a tax cut after the 2017 passage of the [Tax Cuts and Jobs Act].”
Indeed.
It’s clear that conservatives are growing impatient with Lawler’s desire to torpedo the OBBB at the altar of a few high-wealth residents. The Wall Street Journal editorialized against Lawler’s extortion effort on Thursday. As did National Review’s Phil Klein, who calls on Republicans to call Lawler’s bluff and see how his cabal likes being blamed for blowing up President Donald Trump’s landmark legislative agenda. Personally, I think the OBBB isn’t very beautiful at all: it bloats an already crisis-level federal debt load and provides more gimmicks to a tax code already defined by incomprehensibility and gimmickry.
But that’s not the point here.
JORDAN SAVES CHILDREN IN GAZA WHILE OTHERS PROTEST FOR SHOW
The point is that a lot of voters aren’t going to want to see significantly increased tax bills in 2026 (the TCJA tax cuts will expire without new legislation). Nor will Republicans enjoy justifying that state of affairs in a midterm election year. In turn, Republicans should be willing to let the OBBB die on the SALT hill. Let Lawler explain to his constituents why even the $10,000 SALT deduction disappeared (as it will if no new legislation is forthcoming).
And let him explain to his colleagues why it was more important to serve a few rich New Yorkers than to secure tax cuts for those New Yorkers and the rest of the country.
