RCP White House reporter Phil Wegmann asked Karoline Leavitt at Friday’s press briefing about red-state Republicans opposing increases to the State and Local Tax (SALT) deduction being included in President Trump’s expansive “big, beautiful” budget reconciliation bill. The first round of Trump’s tax cuts in 2017 capped the SALT deduction at $ 10,000, but blue-state Republicans want to raise that to $ 30,000 or more.

PHIL WEGMANN, REALCLEARPOLITICS: There’s been some conservative pushback to the SALT tax cap, for instance, Majority Leader Steve Scalise said that bringing back the State And Local Tax deduction would essentially, “mean 45 states are subsidizing five states that have very high taxes imposed by leftist governors.” Is he wrong? Is it fair to ask Red Indiana to bail out blue New York? KAROLINE LEAVITT, TRUMP ADMIN: Well, look, this is an ongoing discussion on the hill. There’s a lot of disagreement on Capitol Hill right now about the SALT tax proposal, and we will let them work it out. As for the tax provisions in the reconciliation bill, the priorities of this president, he has made them incredibly clear. – No tax on tips for our hardworking service workers. – No tax on Social Security for our well-deserving seniors who have worked their whole lives to pay into this system. – No tax on overtime for hardworking Americans as well. And there’s a plethora of other priorities the president wants to see in this bill. Anyone who opposes this bill will be opposing the largest tax cut in American history. They will be voting to raise taxes by the tune of $ 4 trillion on the middle class of this country, and we look forward to holding them accountable for that. Everyone on Capitol Hill on both sides of the aisle should be supportive of the president’s tax priorities.

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