GOP leaders find $40K sweetener in bid to sway budget holdouts
In an effort to save President Donald Trump's "big, beautiful bill," House Republicans have put a new "heightened state-and-local-tax deduction" (SALT) on the table that they hope will push Republican holdouts over the finish line.
On Friday, GOP lawmakers Chip Roy (R-TX), Ralph Norman (R-SC), Andrew Clyde (R-GA), Josh Brecheen (R-OK) and Lloyd Smucker (R-PA) refused to go along with Speaker Mike Johnson's plan.
According to Politico, "A $40,000 cap on the key deduction for individuals and $80,000 cap for joint filers was part of a list of items GOP leaders raised overnight as they scrambled to shore up ultraconservative votes."
The SALT cap increase is a major sticking point in the bill.
"A band of SALT Republicans are publicly pushing for the cap increase to hit $62,000 for individuals and double for joint filers; conservatives generally oppose lifting the existing $10,000 cap, which generally hits high-tax coastal states rich in Democratic votes," according to the Politico piece.
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The report continued, "The fact that leadership discussed a specific number with the hard-liners suggests that they see the $40,000/$80,000 cap as a likely final compromise."
Republicans are hoping to pay for the increase by moving up the 2029 start date for Medicaid work requirements.
NBC reported, "Negotiations with the GOP holdouts, who are pushing for steeper spending cuts and raising concerns about the bill's impact on the U.S. deficit, will continue in the coming days and Republicans on the panel will try to regroup as soon as Monday."
Trump is not happy with the squabbling over the bill.
He wrote on social media, "We don’t need 'GRANDSTANDERS' in the Republican Party. STOP TALKING, AND GET IT DONE! It is time to fix the MESS that Biden and the Democrats gave us. Thank you for your attention to this matter!"