Francis Wilkinson, Columnist

Trump Takes Aim at Last California Republicans

Attacking blue-state taxpayers may produce collateral damage.

Where's their deduction?

Photographer: David McNew/Getty Images
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It's hard to know exactly what shape Republican "tax reform" will take. Many details are missing from the "framework" that the administration presented this week. (Describing actions, or promises of action, by the Donald Trump administration often necessitates the use of quotation marks.) But it must have seemed a good idea to someone to complement Trump's culture war against liberals with a fiscal war.

The deduction for state and local taxes, which is targeted for extinction in the White House framework, is most valuable in states where income and property taxes are high, such as California and New York. That's why ending it has been called a "tax attack on blue states."