Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer is already taunting blue state Republicans over the deal they secured to raise the state and local tax deductions as part of the GOP’s megabill.
With Republicans scrambling to pass the bill, Schumer took to social media to cast the GOP deal to raise the SALT deduction as a capitulation — even though he and his fellow Democrats were unable to do better when they were in control in Washington.
Republicans from New York and other high-tax states managed to secure an agreement to raise the SALT deduction to $40,000 — up from the $10,000 cap imposed as part of President Donald Trump’s 2017 tax cuts.
“This so-called SALT deal is a humiliating failure for NY House Republicans,” Schumer wrote on X. “Donald Trump came to the Capitol to intimidate them and in less than 24 hours they have all bowed to their king. Their capitulation to Trump on SALT is a slap in the face to Long Island, the Hudson Valley, and hardworking, middle-class families across New York.”
His criticism is a sign that Democrats are looking to attack endangered Republicans for failing to extract larger concessions in negotiations. Blue State SALT Republicans earlier pushed for a number closer to $60,000, but have faced increasing pushback from House colleagues and President Donald Trump.
Schumer’s pressure comes even though Democrats didn’t raise the deduction cap while negotiating the Inflation Reduction Act in 2022, when his party controlled the White House and both chambers of Congress.
Legislation passed earlier by the House Ways and Means Committee would have implemented a $30,000 cap alongside an income cap of $400,000 to qualify for the deduction. Armed with significant bargaining power in a narrow Republican majority, SALT Republicans had threatened to withhold their votes from the GOP’s major domestic policy package.
The new cap will only apply to taxpayers making under $500,000. Both the deduction and income cap would rise by a percentage point each year for 10 years.
“NY House Republicans said for months they had one job they were sent to Washington for: to get rid of the SALT cap,” Schumer wrote. “But they are too scared to stand up to Trump.”
