GOP infighting doesn’t stop with the passage of the House spending bill, it just moves to the Senate. One key issue that could cause more “roiling” in the party is the SALT tax, according to a Vox report.
Standing for State and local tax, it allows Americans to deduct up to $10,000 worth of property taxes and sales taxes from their federal taxes. The House bill has now increased the deduction to $40,000.
The legislation was introduced in President Donald Trump’s first term and widely affected purple areas of the country, like certain counties in California and New York.
Vox's Devan Schwartz, told Vox, “SALT is inherently interesting because it’s a microcosm of the fragile political process in Congress at this time in which we often see parties with tiny minorities. Congressional leadership is more centralized than ever, but at the same time, small groups of people can really gum up the works.”
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He added, “It also shows how complex the Republican coalition is — the fight over SALT is really a battle between lawmakers from high-income states and those from lower-income states. We’ve seen pro-SALT lawmakers make the claim that their states’ tax base makes up a disproportionate amount of revenues, and that their constituents deserve a break because of that.”
Schwartz also believes, “I wouldn’t say that the fight over SALT is a fight for the soul of the Republican Party, but it’s definitely a factional fight for power and overall, it really shows how hard it is to actually legislate right now, in a divided Republican caucus, in a divided America.”
The spending bill now moves to the Senate. After approval in the Senate, it can head to the President’s desk. Schwartz noted that Trump is indifferent to the tax. “Throughout this [process his stance] has been, stop whining. Don’t grandstand. It’s more important to get a deal done. So if you don’t get a SALT increase, tough luck. If they get their SALT increase, but you don’t get your thing, tough luck.”
