Democrats fighting losing battle on Tax Reform

President Donald Trump released his tax reform plan on Wednesday and Democrats are fighting it with losing talking points.

The plan eliminates state and local income tax deductions which Democrats complain will hurt high-middle income earners in their states. While their claim may be true for areas with exorbitant state and local taxes like New York, Connecticut, Washington D.C., and California, Republican Senators have no chance to win in an election in those regions and should ignore those concerns. If state taxes are so high that residents will find them objectionable once they are actually exposed to them, then voters may begin to understand that Democrats’ tax-and-spend ideology has failed them.

Rep. Steve King (D-NY) said that the deduction is “absolutely essential to my district,” adding that “I can’t vote for a bill that would eliminate the state and local tax deduction.”

“The public will be equally strong against this plan that is so perverse in helping the wealthy and hurting the middle class, and it will fail,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said Wednesday.

The state and local tax (SALT) deduction forces taxpayers in states with low or no state income taxes to subsidize residents who live in states that elect tax-loving liberals. Federal taxpayers in Alaska, Florida, Nevada, South Dakota, Texas, Washington, and Wyoming have to make up for the shortfall in government revenues that the deductions of New Yorkers and Californians cause. Why? Politics.

Local and state officials in liberal states have no qualms voting for additional taxes and increases to taxes knowing that taxpayers in other states will cushion the blow by subsidizing their residents’ hefty tax bills. As long as their constituents keep getting a free meal ticket from more fiscally responsible states, they know their seat is safe.

As we watch the Democrats march out a tidal wave of talking points about “boardroom and country clubs”, “wealth-fare”, “millionaires and billionaires” and Pelosi’s favorite hit on “trickle-down economics” realize that they aren’t really worried about the wealthy getting a tax break, which they won’t, liberals just can’t have their constituents realize just how bad they’ve been screwed.

The SALT deduction is nothing more than a redistribution of wealth. Not from the top to the bottom, but from responsible voters to those less so.