July 20, 2018

Dems Sue Trump Over Tax Cuts

Politicians in high-tax blue states seek to shield themselves from the consequences of their tax policies.

Several Democrat-run states joined forces this week in suing the federal government over last year’s Republican tax cut legislation. Led by New York, the states of New Jersey, Connecticut, and Maryland allege that the GOP’s tax overhaul was a purely politically motivated measure designed to interfere with how states manage their finances. New York Democrat Gov. Andrew Cuomo charged that the tax bill “was a political attempt to hurt Democratic states.” Fair weather federalists, these folks.

The crux of the issue is this: Under the new tax law, federal tax deductions for state and local taxes (SALT) are capped at $10,000. That means residents in these high-tax states will feel those taxes more acutely, making it politically more difficult for these state governments to maintain their high taxation policies. The Wall Street Journal reports, “In 2015, the states with the highest percentage of tax filers who claimed deductions for state and local taxes above $10,000 were blue states, according to the Pew Charitable Trusts.” That’s not surprising.

Cuomo’s coalition of high-tax states is asking the courts to declare the Republican tax law unconstitutional. Joseph Bishop-Henchman, executive vice president of the Tax Foundation, noted, “The concern that high state taxes might harm the competitiveness or attractiveness of a state like New York or Connecticut is a valid one, but the solution lays with revisiting those state tax rates rather than meritless litigation.” In other words, these spendthrift Democrats are suing because the new law removes the SALT cover that shielded them from the consequences of their tax-and-spend policies.

The Democrats’ complaints here are a bit ironic, given that they’re constantly calling for the rich to be taxed more, and given that their states’ high earners (mostly wealthy Democrats) will be paying more as things stand. In New York, 8.3% of these residents will be affected; in Connecticut, it’s 8.4%. Nationally, 6.3% will pay more. Scott Shackford at Reason also notes the Democrats’ hypocrisy, writing, “These SALT deductions are not claimed equally across the population. They disproportionately benefit the wealthiest citizens who itemize their taxes. New York calculates that New Yorkers will see a $14.3 billion tax hike without the SALT deductions. But that doesn’t mean the hike will be spread across all the citizens of the state. It’s those who earn more than $100,000 a year who claim 81 percent of SALT deductions.”

Here’s the bottom line: Prior to this tax reform, these high-tax blue states were being subsidized by low-tax (and more often than not Republican-run) states like Tennessee, which has no state income tax. Essentially, Cuomo is twisting the principles of federalism in an attempt to keep the lower-tax, fiscally sound states on the hook for helping to foot the blue states’ bills.

(Edited.)

Who We Are

The Patriot Post is a highly acclaimed weekday digest of news analysis, policy and opinion written from the heartland — as opposed to the MSM’s ubiquitous Beltway echo chambers — for grassroots leaders nationwide. More

What We Offer

On the Web

We provide solid conservative perspective on the most important issues, including analysis, opinion columns, headline summaries, memes, cartoons and much more.

Via Email

Choose our full-length Digest or our quick-reading Snapshot for a summary of important news. We also offer Cartoons & Memes on Monday and Alexander’s column on Wednesday.

Our Mission

The Patriot Post is steadfast in our mission to extend the endowment of Liberty to the next generation by advocating for individual rights and responsibilities, supporting the restoration of constitutional limits on government and the judiciary, and promoting free enterprise, national defense and traditional American values. We are a rock-solid conservative touchstone for the expanding ranks of grassroots Americans Patriots from all walks of life. Our mission and operation budgets are not financed by any political or special interest groups, and to protect our editorial integrity, we accept no advertising. We are sustained solely by you. Please support The Patriot Fund today!


The Patriot Post and Patriot Foundation Trust, in keeping with our Military Mission of Service to our uniformed service members and veterans, are proud to support and promote the National Medal of Honor Heritage Center, the Congressional Medal of Honor Society, both the Honoring the Sacrifice and Warrior Freedom Service Dogs aiding wounded veterans, the National Veterans Entrepreneurship Program, the Folds of Honor outreach, and Officer Christian Fellowship, the Air University Foundation, and Naval War College Foundation, and the Naval Aviation Museum Foundation. "Greater love has no one than this, to lay down one's life for his friends." (John 15:13)

★ PUBLIUS ★

“Our cause is noble; it is the cause of mankind!” —George Washington

Please join us in prayer for our nation — that righteous leaders would rise and prevail and we would be united as Americans. Pray also for the protection of our Military Patriots, Veterans, First Responders, and their families. Please lift up your Patriot team and our mission to support and defend our Republic's Founding Principle of Liberty, that the fires of freedom would be ignited in the hearts and minds of our countrymen.

The Patriot Post is protected speech, as enumerated in the First Amendment and enforced by the Second Amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America, in accordance with the endowed and unalienable Rights of All Mankind.

Copyright © 2024 The Patriot Post. All Rights Reserved.

The Patriot Post does not support Internet Explorer. We recommend installing the latest version of Microsoft Edge, Mozilla Firefox, or Google Chrome.