Back in his first term the only significant legislation Trump pushed (hard) and got signed into law was his tax cut for the rich. A key provision was a specific “screw you” to blue states. Ok, so some red states had well off Republicans who got screwed too but it affected blue states and thus Democrats far more. The provision was a limitation on ‘State And Local Taxes’, hence the acronym SALT we’ve heard so much about since. It was a gut punch and Trump wasn’t shy about saying why he insisted on it in the first place. He wanted to screw folks in blue states. It’s proven unpopular enough with even Republicans he campaigned on raising the limit, and even suggested doing away with it. Well, like any other promise Trump has broken his word to appease the most conservative deficit hawk conservatives!
For a while there while pushing his “Big, Beautiful Bill” Trump spoke approvingly of raising the SALT deduction. An awful lot of blue state Republicans, especially in the House needed a bone to throw to voters. For that matter in red states there are Republicans in swing districts or who won last time by well under double digit margins who needed an increase. Without them there’d be no passing Trump’s BBB given the slim GOP majority in the House in particular. The only question was how much and it seemed like raising the SALT deduction to 30k was a real possibility. As this article from Raw Story tells us, not anymore!
Hard core deficit hawk Republicans, as well as some who like Trump just love the idea of sticking it to blue states objected to raising the SALT limit. There were easily enough GOPers in the House raising hell about this to also be able to kill Trump’s BBB. He really, REALLY wants that thing on his desk before he takes a long Memorial Day holiday to play golf. That meant choosing between factions and we now know what he chose. Throw blue state Republicans under the bus! The linked article cites Jake Sherman of Punchbowl news who wrote Trump had completely flipped on the issue. And why:
“He says raising the cap benefits Democratic governors. ‘We don’t want to benefit Democrat governors,’ Trump said in response to my question.”
On Tuesday, in a speech at the Capitol, Trump proclaimed he’s not a huge fan of the state and local tax deduction because, “These are all very blue states that I don’t really believe — if we had honest elections, I think I would’ve won California, I would’ve won New York. I even think I would’ve won Illinois.” He added that “We don’t want to benefit Democrat governors.”
It’s easy to see why Trump made the choice he did. He’s bullied swing district House Republicans into line before and figures he can do so again. He’s probably right. If it costs the GOP control of the House he won’t like it much, but I don’t believe it will bother him as much as many people think it would. He won’t like investigations from a Democratically controlled House. Hell, he’ll rail against them! Even a third Impeachment vote won’t matter because he knows he’d again beat the rap over in the Senate.
This was actually a fairly easy call for Trump. He’d lose for sure if he didn’t appease the hard core Republicans on Capitol Hill. He might still lose if the folks who face real fights for re-election band together but odds are they don’t have the guts. And Trump knows it. Those Congress Critters also know if they defy Trump he’ll make sure they get primaried so they are done either way! Trump’s thrown them under the bus and the carnage will be something to see come the midterms. I won’t feel the least bit sorry for these asshats who thought they’d be immune from ETTD Syndrome.
We’ll have to see what happens of course, but if that artificial Memorial Day deadline passes with the BBB on Trump’s desk for signature I think it’s a new ball game. Even tiny cuts to ‘The Trump’ add up into a lot of (political) injury and Trump’s poll numbers are down. So far every time a hole has been poked in Trump’s ‘invincibility’ he’s been like a self-sealing tire. Still, at some point one has to think the hole will be too big. Trump needs a bigly win and from where I sit has invested far more in this tax/budget bill than he, or many people might realize. Dare we hope he won’t get his way and finally (too late) suffers from the political version of the Arthurian ‘wound that can never heal?’ Stay tuned.
***Zoomers, we are always in need of donations. It’s been an especially rough month and my own health has not been great these past few weeks, which just adds to the frustration. Anything you can spare will be immensely appreciated. And thank you to all who have donated generously already. Ursula***
