Democrats become the party of tax cuts for the rich

This week, the attorneys general of four high-tax Northeastern states, New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, and Maryland, brought a lawsuit against the Treasury Department alleging that a tax provision of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 is unconstitutional. The issue in question is a new $10,000 limit on a taxpayer’s ability to deduct state and local taxes.

Others, such as Joe Henchman at the Tax Foundation, have deconstructed the frivolous natureof this case from a legal perspective. It goes without saying that no state has a “right” for its residents to be able to deduct their state and local taxes on their federal income tax returns. It follows that Congress can provide any such deduction as it pleases, from no deduction whatsoever all the way up to a full deduction for everyone, or any deduction rules in between. The $10,000 limit on the state and local taxes, or SALT, deduction is entirely constitutional and well within Congress’ power to set income tax rules.

What is more interesting about this uphill fight that four blue-state politicos have picked is how it reveals the extent to which the modern Democratic party has come to be dominated by rich, coastal elites. Any reasonable analysis, including by left-of-center tax experts, conclusively demonstrates that uncapping the SALT limit would be a massive tax cut for the rich.

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