McConnell: What’s the rush on Phase 4 coronavirus relief, except for Pelosi’s hobby-horse agenda?Hot Air, Mar 31, 2020, Ed Morrissey
Two key Senate Republicans declared Nancy Pelosi’s tax break for blue-state millionaires dead on arrival — if she has the nerve to actually propose it. The chair of the Finance Committee, which would have to approve the elimination of the state and local tax (SALT) deduction cap, won’t bother to review it at all. A spokesperson for Chuck Grassley wondered why this would be the time to bring up a tax break for millionaires in high-tax states like California and New York:
The office of Senate Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, blasted House Speaker Nancy Pelosi after she proposed rolling back a cap on state and local tax (SALT) deductions as part of the next coronavirus response bill.
The SALT cap, which was put in place by President Trump’s 2017 tax reform law, limits deductions of state and local tax from federal taxes at $10,000. The cap has been particularly unpopular in high-tax blue states. Grassley’s office argued that eliminating this now would not help the working class, as it would mostly benefit wealthier Americans.
“This is a nonstarter. Millionaires don’t need a new tax break as the federal government spends trillions of dollars to fight a pandemic,†a spokesperson for Grassley said.
Not only will Mitch McConnell oppose a repeal of the SALT cap, he wondered aloud on today’s Hugh Hewitt show why we’re talking about Phase 4 in the first place. Congress just passed a $2.2 trillion dollar relief bill, which has yet to even launch its most direct stimulus of $1200 for nearly every taxpayer and $500 per child. Shouldn’t we wait to see how the CARES Act works first?
McConnell has suspicions that Pelosi will turn Phase 4 into a practical application of Rahm Emanuel’s famous exhortation about crises:
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