Republican scoffs at GOP colleagues 'playing hardball' with Trump's bill: 'Not gonna work'

Rep. Dusty Johnson (R-SD) laid out clearly on CNN Thursday evening that Northeast Republicans trying to play hardball for full repeal of the state and local tax deduction cap are not going to get their way, and they had better get with the program and accept a compromise in President Donald Trump's budget bill.

Repealing the SALT cap, which was itself passed in Trump's first tax bill in 2017, has become a massive sticking point for Republicans in New York in particular, triggering faction-fighting within the caucus. GOP leadership is currently offering to raise the SALT cap rather than repeal it outright, but multiple GOP lawmakers are refusing to accept that as the deal.

"House Republicans are still trying to finalize what President Trump calls the 'big, beautiful bill,'" said anchor Jake Tapper. "A big sticking point right now in negotiations just within the Republican caucus has to do with the SALT cap ... it's a way for people in high-tax states, New York, et cetera, to get a deduction in their federal taxes. Listen to what your speaker told reporters earlier today about this."

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"Everyone has known that the SALT issue is one of the big ones that we have to resolve," House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) told reporters in the clip. "It's one of the key pieces of this equation to sort of meet the equilibrium point that everybody can be satisfied with. Not everybody is going to be delighted with every provision in a bill this large, but everyone can be satisfied. And we're very, very close to that."

"How close is 'very, very close,' and what do you think is ultimately going to come from an agreement?" asked Tapper.

"First of all, I would tell you, I don't think we should be subsidizing high-tax states," said Johnson. "SALT is just a giveaway to the high-tax environment of New York and, to a lesser extent, California. So if it was up to me, Jake, we would lower that $10,000 deduction, not increase it. But I figured out a long time ago that Washington, D.C. does not deliver Dusty Johnson every single thing he wants. Politics is the art of the possible."

The upshot, he continued, is that "I think we're probably going to see a SALT cap quite a bit higher than $10,000, maybe $30,000 or $40,000. I think that's doable. I think the speaker is right. That's the equilibrium point. If the New York guys think that by playing hardball, they can hold out and hold out and hold out and get a better deal at some point, that is just not gonna work."

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