Democrats Get Clout Needed for Risky Bid to End Trump’s SALT Cap

  • A popular blue state tax break could be revived under Biden
  • Some economists dismiss the idea as a handout to the richest

Donald Trump signs the Tax Reform bill into law at the Oval Office in Dec. 2017.

Photographer: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
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Democrats will soon have the balance of power required to repeal President Donald Trump’s limitation on a prized tax deduction, but doing so will likely require a tricky procedural process and a politically fraught vote.

There are few issues that have riled certain segments of the Democratic Party more than Trump’s cap on write-offs of state and local tax, or SALT. Repealing it, however, would require Democrats to vote for something widely seen as a tax cut for the rich at the same time the party is proposing tax increases to make the Internal Revenue Service code more progressive.