Top Democrat Rips Red ‘Taker States’ Getting Subsidized By Blue ‘Donor States’ Like New York: That’s ‘Actually Not Fair’
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) was asked about the ongoing battle over the SALT deduction cap in the House on Monday. Jeffries fumed at the idea that GOP members from “taker states” want to keep taxing “Blue state” residents at a higher rate, while those states “subsidize” them at the federal level.
“I wanted to ask you about the discussion going on with SALT right now. Obviously, you still have a fair amount of New York Republicans who are not budging when it comes to discussions on SALT, but you have Republicans from other states that are saying otherwise,” asked a Capitol Hill reporter, adding:
One of the more heated conversations we saw was between Congressman Tom Suozzi and Congressman Beth Van Dyne during one of the hearings where she said Texas isn’t affected by SALT. And Suozzi kept asking her over and over again, well, what about the people of New York. Tell me about your thoughts on Republicans who want to keep the soft cap where it is, but then they say that taxpayers shouldn’t get a break for choosing to live in a high-tax state. Do you agree with that, or do you think it’s fair for Republicans from other states to say something like this?
“States like New York and New Jersey and Connecticut and Illinois and California, are donor states, we regularly send billions of dollars more to the federal government than we get back in return. We are donor states!” Jeffries replied, adding:
So we’re not going to be lectured by people who are actually in what has sometimes been referred to as taker states, who actually receive more money every year from the federal government. Than they send in terms of taxpayer dollars as to what is fair and what is right.
It’s actually not fair that you have many states in this country who subsidize other states. New York subsidizes other states, and so to provide some measure of relief through the state and local tax deduction, I think is a modest step toward balancing the revenues that come in and the revenues that come out.
The people of New York are fine with continuing to be a donor state, but it is unfair to cap the state and local tax deduction at $10,000. And if my Republican colleagues were really interested in providing relief to middle-class taxpayers that they represent, then they would simply say and make clear that this budget should remain silent on the state and local tax deduction because by doing nothing, the cap disappears effective December 31st of this year.
Several House Republicans from blue states, like Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY), have refused to support the Trump-backed legislation known as the “Big Beautiful bill” unless the SALT deduction cap is raised significantly. The current cap is at $10,000, which was put in place by Trump in 2017. Lawler and his allies have sought to raise it to $62,000 for individuals and double for those filing jointly. The SALT deduction largely impacts “blue state” residents who pay higher state and city taxes than residents in “red states.”
Watch the clip above via C-SPAN.
