Eliminating the state and local tax (SALT) deduction cap was always the worst of Democrats’ ideas for the long-awaited reconciliation package. While ideas like a billionaires’ tax, letting the IRS snoop on regular Americans’ bank accounts, and massive corporate and capital gains tax hikes are all awful, eliminating the SALT cap had the unique distinction ofactively working against the stated progressive goal of addressing wealth inequality. When crunch time came and Democrats had to figure out what their reconciliation package could realistically include, it should have been the first thing to go — if it wasn’t gone well beforehand.
But it isn’t. Rep. Josh Gottheimer, who previously referred to the SALT cap as a “direct assault on hardworking men and women of labor,” tweeted that eliminating the SALT cap was going to be a part of the final reconciliation bill. That’s a serious enough unforced error on Democrats’ part, but they’ve managed to make it even worse.
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