As President Donald Trump and House Speaker Mike Johnson departed a Republican conference meeting covering the pending legislative vote on the Budget and Tax bill proposal, they paused to talk to media (two videos below).
President Trump is focused on growing the economy, the Republican budget hawks want spending reduced. President Trump doesn’t want to increase the deduction for State and Local Taxes (SALT), the blue state Republicans demand the red states pay for their state tax policy. WATCH:
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WASHINGTON DC – […] Trump’s Capitol Hill visit comes less than 24 hours before Johnson wants the House Rules Committee to meet and finalize the bill for a floor vote. Johnson told reporters after the meeting that a Wednesday vote “would be optimal” but acknowledged he had to “tie up a few loose ends” with the various factions.
What’s clear is that Trump himself is not interested in stretching out the talks much longer. He said in response to a question from POLITICO that the hard-liners needed to pare back their demands for deeper spending cuts: “I’m a bigger fiscal hawk,” he said. “There’s nobody like me.”
Despite Trump’s pledges to preserve Medicaid, the bill would have significant impacts on the program. The latest Congressional Budget Office analysis released Tuesday found that 7.6 million people would lose their Medicaid coverage if the House proposal became law. But the hard-liners want deeper, “structural” changes that target the program’s expansion under the 2010 Affordable Care Act.
Meanwhile, addressing the SALT group, he said that the tax break — one he pledged to expand last year while campaigning — mainly served to benefit blue-state governors and that the group of holdouts needed to accept the deal to modestly increase the existing $10,000 cap on the deduction.
A senior White House official said Trump “made it clear he’s losing patience with all holdout factions of the House Republican Conference,” and he “wants EVERY Republican to vote yes.”
One House Republican, also granted anonymity to candidly describe Trump’s attitude, summarized the president’s mood as, “He’s done with this.” (read more)
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I stand with PRESIDENT Trump…..I’m done with these RINOs
Trump is a phenomenon, a warrior standing up against the monolithic blob. Then there’s us, his soldiers.
“ He’s done with us” as he should be!
What a shower of self absorbed they are.
Cheers!
Donald Trump became a Republican and pulled them out of the toilet bowl they were circling and they’re giving him a hard time passing his campaign agenda. F the bean counters and F the Republican party.
Will Johnson pull it off ? 🥸
😱
Johnson is fortunate to pull off his pants at the end of another “light” day. What an empty suit.
Johnson looks like a scolded child next to “Papa” PTrump.
Massi is being his normal self centered a$$.
I actually agree with Massi and the Freedom Caucus most of the time and I believe they are fighting for the right things. I just think sometimes they have to realize you may not get all you want in one bill. Get what you can now and give DJT what he needs to get going and get ready for the next fight. It is not giving up.
Wonder if his new girlfriend Christina Pushaw former press secretary to De Santis is influencing him in any way. He moved on very quickly didn’t he.? His wife just died last June.
yeah, he sure didn’t let her get cold.
Pushaw is an ancient Evil.
Pushaw, the blonde Whitmer.
Don’t be a cheerleader. Spending is a serious issue. There’s nothing wrong with disagreeing with Trump. Are we gonna turn on a dime when dimms get in and start spending recklessly? Let’s use our heads.
Massie will always be a patriot to me. And Trump’s incessant attacks on him over core values look foolish. Ron Johnson is worried about the bill as well.
Good example of how we get 37 trillion in debt.
Bingo. Kick the Can Down the Street #85
Not affordable. Needs to be scaled back.
Trump needs to stop with the megalomania, & finish the Southern Wall, then start on the northern one.
Prices have turned around, but aren’t great. People don’t feel comfortable, just slightly relieved.
Sell off unneeded federal lands to raise $$.
Do you know why they jumped through their butt to pass no tax on tips?
Because most people making tips don’t make enough to pay income tax. It is a nothing burger.
Why did they leave out no tax on social security?
Because they tax you when you make the money going into social security. They tax you when you get your money back from social security. If you were frugal enough to set some back in a retirement plan, they double screw you by making you take it out and force you into a higher tax bracket.
We were promised no taxes on social security. Kill the damn bill and let the government die. I have had my fill of the lies and Con artistry.
Yes! Kill any bill that doesn’t abolish tax on social security.
Yeah, that way SS and the US can go bankrupt even faster.
I think we are going to have to flood Trump to veto this bill, because, as usual, lies abound. I have seen, but haven’t investigated, that the no tax on SS is because there is something going back to Byrd which does not allow the tax on SS to be changed; that it will have to be a totally different bill.
I am sick of these lying, corrupt frauds, led by Speaker Johnson and “Leader” Thune, both corrupt liars past their eyeballs, and still trying their best to stall Trump and his EOs, and goals.
IMO no tax on social security is the only +no tax on xxx” that is fully justified. Both tips and overtime are factually income earned. On the other hand SS benefits are partly at least simply refunds of monies earned and taxed in the past. Furthermore the threshhold at which SS benefits become taxable has not been increased since 1984 other than adding a slightly higher threshhold for joint filers in 1993. Joint filers threshold is $34,000.
YET, the rate of taxes paid in by workers has gone up during the history from inception with the last increase being in 1990. And, in 1993, the taxable portion of SS benefits was increased from 50% to 85% of benefits.
With a joint filer threshold of $34k, a situation where a second spouse is working or where both spouses are drawing from their 401k/IRA accounts (because retirement fund income is included in calculating the threshold) can often exceed $34k.
OK but the average SS benefit at FRA is $23,700. So $11,850 is included in AGI/MAGI (at your threshold). Standard deduction for 2025 MFJ is $30,000. So if you are right at that $34k threshold your taxable income is $4k. Or if you say adding in the $11,850 takes you to $45,850 MAGI taxable income is $15,850. You pay ZERO tax on that for MFJ (up to $23,200).
So like everything else in the income tax world, it is the top 10% but really top 1% that pays all the tax and gets all the benefit of any “break”.
You are wrong. We are not in the top 1% by any means but my spouse is still earning and I was making about the same amount when I retired. His earnings plus my retirement fund withdrawals exceed the $34k upper limit requring 85% of my SS benefits to be taxable. That is enough to throw us from the 12% bracket into the 22% bracket. Instead of our standard deduction reducing taxes on my spouse’s income and my retirement fund withdrawals, we now owe 22% on 85% of my SS benefits. Without that additional income, our rate would only be 12%. So essentially almost all my taxable SS benefits are taxed at 22%.
Yet people who work on tips are overjoyed about this.
Said “Act” should have contained ALL the tax cut provisions.
Now get rid of tax on SS!
I am still waiting for No Taxes On Social Security. Us Old Farts
have been caste aside.
Not mention … all those immigrants still getting SSI and Disability payouts, which costs TAX Dollars over and above FICA Tax collections to keep the fund solvent.
How much will be borrowed from MEDICARE to pay for Medicaid and Obamacare, which means premium and deductible increases = LESS Money in Social Security Checks actually sent out.
The most galling part that all of gaslighting and smoke was blown up butts … moaning that the number of Boomers retiring was an issue … but NOBODY mentions that for 40 YEARS that huge group of BOOMERS CONTRIBUTED more to Social Security and Medicare than any demographic to date … WTF happened to ALL the money??? The boomers are not getting it … it was borrowed by the Government and used to pay for entitlement programs.
Boomers contracepted away more future contributors than any other generation. But I digress.
Birth control pills, Roe v. Wade, and feminism arrived … What a coincidence
Children are a blessing not a burden…actions…consequences
They never paid a dime into any of that! Let the illegals sink!
SSI does not come out of the OASDI trust funds. As for Medicare Part B, wife and I get a fun thing called Income Related Monthly Adjustment Amount because we saved while working instead of blowing our earnings on junk.
No taxes on social security is included in the House bill.
It’s not. Had to do with something Byrd did a long time ago, can’t be eliminated in reconciliation. There’s a credit instead for now.
It’s not a credit. It’s an additional standard deduction of $4,000 for Seniors, which does little to offset SS benefits included in taxable income.
My bad, I thought it was a 4k credit
Actually for me that is great. Probable won’t pay any taxes
Well of course that depends on what your MAGI is (taxable income is the amount AFTER subtracting the standard/itemized deduction).
$4000 increase in standard deduction (for non-itemizers) would be about the same as a $1000 credit (depends on your bracket obviously) but if a credit is refundable it becomes more valuable for many people.
No it is not. Even sites like TGP are gaslighting us. I guess they want to be included in the list of fake news outlets.
Too bad the REPUBLICANS just can’t build off the reductions in spending Identified by DOGE … of course DOGE hit Republicans in the Pocket Book almost as bad as DEMOCRATS.
How many budget lines Identified as dead by DOGE but still being funded survived?? Bet they ALL survived.
Bet ALL the DOGE recommendations to track spending are being left out .. let’s see how many expenditures are DENIED because of missing tracking information, which DOGE recommended.
Bet ALL the the OPENED REPROGRAMMING language is in the BILL, allowing States to divert money to project of the day on a whim and zero oversight or approval.
Ukraine War survived.
How many of those 7.6 Million “PEOPLE” identified as “loosing medical coverage” are actually US Citizens??
How many illegals will be funded under medicaid and are still on the welfare rolls, not counting those covered by reprogrammed state grants??
No mention of the other FREEDOM CAUCUS Hot Button that they refuse to support … taxing Hedge Fund Money as INCOME, as it should be.
The list goes on and on … it’s business as usual.
The “Budget Hawks” are as disingenuous a bunch as exists … they are right but are NOT attacking the lines and items that need to go … not a single mention of DOGE findings and reductions … just preserving their own piggy bank related BS.
Plus, did President Trump even put any thing from DOGE in his proposal to at least make all those worry wart budget hawks say NO???
I read an ai estimate 40-60% of the green nude eel will still be funded in the new bill. That’s too much. The entire thing could have been repealed in a one sentence bill. Republican house and senateand they can’t get that done? So corrupt and gross. Just like Paul Ryan. Next we’ll read about a wave of house republicans retiring.
Retiring is a misnomer. There should never be House careerists.
“How many budget lines Identified as dead by DOGE but still being funded survived?? Bet they ALL survived.”
This is what I’m focused on.
When I yanked the chain of some connected people in OK on why the two Senators joined the crooked 24 in voting down DOGE cuts, I was informed their excuse was/is that all of the DOGE cuts are going to be included in recissions.
I will be watching closely on what percentage of the waste, fraud, and abuse gets cut by recissions.
Oklahoma here . . . Thanks for posting this. Yes, watching recissions and also watching our two Senators.
Congress HAS to claw back/rescind the fraud, waste, and abuse identified by DOGE or we are gone as a nation.
IMO, no one can blame Musk for backing off. Huge mistake not to support him; may cost the gop the mid terms, which they do not deserve anyway. Musk has been an absolute God-send, but the corrup gop would rather things go on as usual. Virtually no difference in the gop and the dems.
I guess I’m too old and have had to meet payrolls and budgets for too long. Wanting to pare those trillion dollar budgets by cutting spending seems prudent to me, but what do I know? The course we’re on makes little sense and doesn’t bode well. Pushing the savings of the “big” bill out to 2029 also makes no sense.
It “Makes Sense” because It Will Never Happen !!! The USSA Empire will collapse in Debt.
If Trump has an Alternative Plan for Our Money to be Gold, Silver, Wealth Fund from Resources, etc then OK it might “work”.
Any such plan will not address the $36T of debt we have run up. Therefore we still go bankrupt. We cannot tapdance our way out of this the bills have to be paid.
If you say we can repudiate the debt, you are saying ships don’t get built to keep the sea lanes open. Your precious SS checks stop coming. Those 5% T-bills that are the backbone of the “safe” part of your portfolio? Poof. Gone. Pay for troops? Nope. And so forth and so on. Nobody will lend the US a nickel if those debts are not repaid.
Agree… Great Depression of 2031-2034
1st John 4:10
How about selling off federal lands for private development?
Certainly many of the western states could profit from a bigger tax base.
Just stipulate it has to be an American business entity that buys it, hold it, & develops it.
Baby boomers will be starting to die before then…look at the savings related to SS and Medicare.
Sure but if you’re that old, you know we’ve been hearing “the sky is falling” since Hector was a pup. Need to give up on the “we’re bankrupt” angle and instead look at actual cost/benefit of federal programs.
What an awesome Prez….I’m glad to be alive for this Presidency.
Our VSG Lion will choose the most OPTIMAL solution to move the MAGA agenda forward…PRIMARY these deep state RINO hyenas already! Each of the state republican committee members pushing for these RINO candidates should be eliminated and substituted with MAGA patriots who love our country and interested more in policy than the Benjamins! SMH…
“It is he club you never want to be in.”
God bless them.
I thank them all,
Individually and as the collective face of so many who serve to help others.
How do we thank and honor you?
Thank you to those who made an effort to do so. No words or medals can ever suffice, but the intent to recognize the sacrifice is appreciated.
2 Trillion a year in hot checks – no cuts?
No DOGE reductions included – $160 Billion?
Thomas Massi is a libertarian flower in need of a reflecting pool so he can admire himself at all times. Considering him honestly he does absolutely nothing but posture. He could do that at home.
He’s like the senator from KY, must be the water.
What happened to no tax on SS?
Last I heard SS changes aren’t allowed by reciliation. Full 60 votes are needed to get through the Senate and we only have 53. No Dems will vote for it. Then there is Ran Paul who can’t vote for any of it because it raises the debt ceiling to cover the spending ran up by the previous administration. Remember the continuation bill a few months back “to keep the government open”? I wonder how many of our good GOPers voted to kick the can down the road so it could be a Trump problem?
Stay tuned this crap storm isn’t over yet.
I guess Dems want to be known as the party that didn’t support no taxes on SS.
And are they continuing to fund the fraud and 300 year old recipients of SS?
Seniors need relief now and 4k does not cut it especially when the grift and graft continues.
Congress is not really serious about getting the spending under control. Why would they? If it doesn’t benefit their pockets, it’s a means to more power.
Doubtful the dynamic will appreciably change until the Federal Reserve system itself ceases to be, and we have sound money.
Our unsound money is the result of unsound deficit spending. Not interest rates set by the Fed or fractional reserve banking. If we had balanced budgets, the Fed would be arguing about 2.4 vs 2.5% interest rates. The Fed cannot even rein in the inflation the way it once did with interest rate of 10%+ in the 1980s. If they did, the US would be unable to pay the interest on the $36T debt with only $4.5T coming in each year. It is spending, spending, spending.
I have enough of the jackass agenda to pay for, any additional deductions for the blue state tax is not fair to me.. control your spending and your states budget . Don’t tell me I ned to pay for your social folly
well somebody finally told him about all the VACATION days Johnson has taken!! He’s done with their BS
President Trump has given four more years to turn this country around. Working tiredly behind and in front of the camera. Congress has done nothing but work the circuits to bleed more money into their pockets and away from the Americans. There is no red line between parties any longer in DC. Glad to hear he’s done with their antics and shameful display of patriotism.
As I said in the other thread, I believe President Trump has put a lot of effort into getting this passed.
Effort at keeping the RINO’s pointed in the right direction.
RINO cooperation that will disappear like a feather in a wind storm once he starts rounding up Deep State traitors.
The Inconvenient FACT is that the USSA Bureaucrazy demands to be Fed $$$$$$. Repubs always have an “excuse” for More $pending.
Above the Biden Covid Busting Budget, the Deficit continues to Grow, the Debt continues to Soar to 50 Trillion in 10 +/- years.
Maybe there is “A Plan” to Bust the Feral Reserve Banksters ??? That is the only “Logical’ explanation for Growing the Debt.
Historically, Every Fiat Currency reverts to it’s intrinsic “paper” worth. Just saying,
I think PDJT thinks that he will raise federal revenue by a large amount through his economic and trade policies.
However, regardless of the amount of money being brought into the government there is never an excuse for waste, fraud, and abuse to remain funded.
You get it boss man… the Fed is the cause of the 30 yr cycles and coming Great Depression of 2031-2034
1st John 4:10
If you dont watch fox you miss Jesse Waters show,tonight his man on the street ,Johnny was at Comey’s book signing in NY .he said im from fox news Jesse Waters show.he asked why do you want to 86 press Trump? comey got real red faced & asked johnny is you want me to sign my book,johnny says yes & reaches in to his suit jacket & hands comey something & says will you sign this sea shell.plenty of laughs from me & wife.
There aren’t many good people in Congress the senate or the judiciary and even the cabinet.
Kill the bill. It’s a bad bill. Start over.
Trump may get his big beautiful bill, but if the deficits continue at their current pace, unabated his presidency will be a failure. We need recission bill after recission bill to capture spending cuts identified by DOGE. Executive orders and canceling contracts and laying off feds is NOT going to save enough to matter. Congress MUST cancel programs, agencies, and exenditures. Hundreds of billions, even trillions. Tariffs (which are taxes) cannot raise enough revenue to close the gap. Start with recission of the ridiculous programs identified by DOGE that nobody can vote to defend. Things that got passed in 3000 page omnibus bills that the staff wrote and the congressmen do not read before voting for them.
I don’t think we are getting off this hellride that easily, friend.
The last official act of any government is to loot the Treasury.
What comes after I can only guess, but Congress as currently constituted is not likely to be a part of the solution.
Despite President Donald Trump’s historic 2024 landslide victory—claiming 312 electoral votes, the national popular vote, all battleground states, and sweeping control of both chambers of Congress—the GOP-controlled House and Senate have sent fewer bills to his desk than any Congress in the last 70 years.
https://yournews.com/2025/05/12/3436521/trump-signs-fewest-bills-in-70-years-as-gop-controlled-congress/
If the Rino-Republicans torpedo PDJT’s BBB, he and Musk will unleash financial holy hell on them before the midterms.
You are living in a fantasy land of you believe that will ever happen.
Until Trump exacts fierce consequences to any Republican Rep who crosses him there will be insurrection. Stop whining. Stop being a nice guy. The president has enormous power to screw Republican members of Congress who cross him. Make an example of one and the rest will fall in line. LBJ was a mean SOB and members of his own party feared him and after he castrated a couple nobody would oppose whatever he wanted. Trump could take a lesson.
It is sooo gratifying to hear some media folks at these impromptu pressers actually say “Thank you, Mr. President.” at the conclusion.
It does my heart good.
Conservative used to be associated with fiscally responsible and balanced budget.
Running up the debt with 10 trillion dollars in 4 years is neither.
I suppose the donors want to be paid.
‘President Trump is focused on growing the economy, the Republican budget hawks want spending reduced.’
A synthesis of views expressed by some:
The real basis of an economy – industry – largely disappeared from the US starting around 1980, as the government artificially propped the nation up with increased spending beyond tax revenue.
US industry has wasted away to a vestigial shadow of what made America great post-WWII. Facing crushing competition from China and loss of US scientific/engineering prowess in step with Marxist identity class “equity” quotas that subverted everything including education, US industry is not going to rebuild to former strength, so regrowing a real economy is not going to happen.
Government spending is about 43% of GDP now:
https://www.usgovernmentspending.com/usgs/rev/percent_gdp
Back to Trump: The same pattern continues: Artificially prop up the economy with government overspending beyond tax revenue. When he talks about “growing the economy”, he’s talking about increasing GDP with increased government overspending adding to the national debt.
Despite all the talk about getting the national debt under control, its growth continues to accelerate under Trump. Where do things go from here? Here’s one view:
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2025-05-20/moodys-meaningless-downgrade
Some suggest that this all fits a pattern of “managed decline” of the US, spanning multiple administrations, and the Trump 2.0 administration is taking its turn now at the rudder steering that decline while bamboozling the gullible with bluster.
Continuing the national debt growth while pretending to address it fits the pattern:
“Make America Healthy Again” while continuing the mass attrition of gravely harmful genetic manipulation injections.
“Make the military strong again” while continuing to deplete it and degrading the support workforce with major cuts.
“Make the government efficient” while making it more dysfunctional with major cuts. (Government bureaucracies are not profit-oriented corporations.)
“Clean up the mass illegal immigration problem” while doing nothing more than dealing with the tiny fraction that are the worst criminals.
What is the alternative to “managed decline”? There isn’t one at this point – that’s why it has been happening since before 9/11, when the Controllers executed the pivot to start the surveillance state in preparation for their planned end point of this “managed decline”.
ae911truth.org
Congressman Greg Steube
@RepGregSteube
President Trump is 100% right. SALT is nothing but a bailout for Democrat governors who tax their states to death.
If the SALT Caucus wants to ease their state and local tax burden, they can start by voting out the incompetent Democrats controlling their legislatures. But free states like Florida should NOT be footing the bill for New York’s mismanagement.
Cont…
The Case for Repealing the SALT Deduction Cap Entirely
I’ll take a moment and express my frustrations in no particular order:
None of the other issues short of thermonuclear war matter. They will mostly resolve themselves one way or the other once the country is broke and we revert to an Articles of Confederation with maybe regional federations. At that point we’ll practically be a pre-industrialization economy with very little farming and a bunch of useless people in cities. Ought to be a great time, kind of like South Africa or Zimbabwe. Also, watch for the rug pull on the dollar, some clever people are going to try to tie the dollar to crypto globally (stable coins and Bitcoin) to continue this scheme.
Everything has been, as the Internet says, fake and ghey since I was born. Mike Johnson looks like a total fool/tool in that picture. He’s our Pierre Poilievre or Kier Starmer.
This big beautiful bill depresses me. If we look at the bill in terms of how it curbs spending, well, it does no such thing. As I read it, all the utterly insane nonsense about digging thousands and thousands of miles of holes in the ground out west in Dakota and Iowa for pipe lines to “sequester” CO2, a green new deal wet dream, so that billions of taxpayer dollars can be sent to grifter green companies for this fruitless task (global warming is a complete scam), is still in the bill. That was low-hanging fruit. The SALT business is obvious. Blue states want Red states to subsidize their fiscal madness. Maybe some progress here–maybe.
The question for me: if not now, when? Trump is no fiscal hawk and never has been. He thinks America can grow her way out of decades of off-shoring and insane levels of government spending and waste. I’m not so sure. America mends her spending ways or America becomes extinct. We are getting to the point, I would say rapidly, that for any durable changes to be implemented the Republicans have to sweep control of the senate and congress in the upcoming midterms, and sweep them with people who aren’t RINOS.
That’s really a wing and a prayer.
I know a lot about Medicaid and it is riff with fraud. Medicaid has been expanded to illegals. Not just the children and pregnant woman, but all illegals. They also changed the rules where you were required to apply for any income you were eligible for to receive Medicaid. This means I could retire from my job at 63 years old and apply for Medicaid and not be forced to apply for my pension from my employer of 30 years or early Social Security. I could live on my savings for two years, then apply for my pension and my social security at 65 and go on Medicare. Meanwhile, I could get every test or procedure needed on the tax mayor’s dime… Hip replacement wouldn’t cost me a penny. I won’t do this, however many will.
Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.) passed away today. Rest in Peace. The Republican House majority just got a temporary one vote boost.
The Republican bean counters are opposing increases in the SALT (State & Local Tax Exemptions). I have always believed that a tax on a tax is immoral, confiscatory and unconstitutional. Remember, back in the 50’s we had a top federal rate of 90%. Add State and City income tax and you can easily go over 100%. At one time in parts of post WWII Italy this actually happened and everyone had to cheat on their taxes.
To hell with the bean counters, pass the President’s BBB.
So I just heard a statement by Chip Roy saying the cutting in the bill does nothing to address the excesses put in place during Biden’s occupancy.
I have not yet heard any specifics but I have been having computer issues which has significantly cut down my ability to peruse both CTH as well as other reporting.
I’m interested to know if anyone has analyzed this particular point regarding the bill.
The piece below is the best analysis I have seen anywhere of the dynamics of what is happening with the Big Beautiful Tax Bill, what is included, the interests of each faction, and how those interests are in conflict with each other. Enjoy
https://www.understandingamerica.co/p/tripping-through-the-triangular-tax
MAGA. Double down, President Trump!
My dear friend in San Antonio tells me that Chip Roy is under intense pressure by a large majority of his constituents to cease his arduous opposition to PDJT’s BBB, but he is arrogantly unresponsive to them.
I anticipate he will join John Cornyn in the political dust bin in 2026.
Don’t these people understand that booting illegal aliens off of Medicaid, to making permanent President Donald Trump’s border security measures, modernizing air traffic control, halting tax dollars from going to child sex change procedures, making the Trump tax cuts permanent and fulfilling his campaign promises of no tax on tips or overtime are more important to their re-election and the country than counting beans?
These so-called Conservatives are gonna put the Democrats back in power. I could just spit.
What about the DOGE cuts? I heard those aren’t on the table.
The SS cap was $76,100 in 2000. Today it is $176,100.
Home prices, even in red states, have risen 162% since the year 2000.
Incomes have only risen 78% since 2000.
All of these facts should be weighed in the discussion. Increasing the SALT cap doesn’t benefit only blue states. No matter what it appears we are headed toward collapse with Congress achieving little to nothing other than padding their own portfolios.