Centrist Rep. Tom Suozzi has spent weeks railing against the left, claims massive tax break is “very progressive”
By Igor Derysh, Salon
Rep. Tom Suozzi of New York is a centrist Democrat from suburban Long Island who has spent recent weeks attacking the left and is likely to quit Congress altogether within a matter of days, ahead of a likely 2022 campaign for governor. But for his last act in the House, Suozzi wants to jam through a massive tax break that disproportionately favors wealthy homeowners in a handful of liberal states. Progressives are fighting back against expanding this tax deduction, known as SALT, and Suozzi is furious. “SALT is a very progressive policy,” he told Salon in a heated phone interview.
Suozzi, the vice-chair of the bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus, has repeated his “No SALT, no deal” mantra for months, in reference to President Biden’s Build Back Better package. Now he’s frustrated that his proposal, an $85 billion annual tax cut that would overwhelmingly flow to the top 5% of earners, is being watered down in Congress to make room for key Democratic priorities. He’s furious that his state got screwed by the Trump tax cuts. He’s angry that the rich, he says, are leaving New York’s high tax rates for Republican tax havens like Florida. And he’s had it with “phony-baloney” narratives on the left, and insists that a tax break designed to keep wealthy people in Northeast Corridor states, where their taxes fund the Democratic agenda, is a “progressive” policy.
A group of moderate Democrats from high-cost, high-tax states, led by Suozzi and Rep. Josh Gottheimer of New Jersey, has issued a last-minute ultimatum demanding a roll-back of the cap on the State and Local Tax deduction or SALT. That cap was a Trump-era policy change that limits the amount high-earners may deduct from their federal taxes (to offset local taxes) to $10,000. This internal battle over a poorly-understood provision of tax policy has left Democrats with a big narrative problem.
Recent Posts
This May Day, Let’s Follow The Lead Of Immigrant Workers
May 1, 2024
Take Action Now Let’s follow the lead of immigrant workers organizing for a world without borders — this May Day and beyond. by David Bennion and…
UK Students Begin New Wave Of Protests Against Gaza War After US Arrests
May 1, 2024
Take Action Now Protests planned in Sheffield, Bristol, Leeds, Newcastle and other universities in show of solidarity with Palestinians By Sally…
Police Storm Columbia’s Campus And Violently Arrest Protestors
May 1, 2024
Take Action Now “The U.S. government and institutions like Columbia are showing that they would rather brutalize students than divest from…
They Arrested Us. I Hope It Brings An End To Nuclear Weapons.
May 1, 2024
Take Action Now About 50 people protested April 15 outside the Kansas City National Security Campus, a plant run by Honeywell, calling for an end to…