Donald Trump’s Latest Tax Pander Flops In Congress

WASHINGTON ― Former President Donald Trump’s statement on Tuesday in favor of an unlimited federal tax deduction for state and local taxes ― a flip-flop from the stance he held during his presidency ― left heads spinning on Capitol Hill.

Trump himself sharply curtailed the deduction in 2017, when he signed a partisan tax bill into law in his signature legislative achievement as president.

Democrats and Republicans alike from high-tax states such as New York decried the $10,000 limit on the state-and-local tax write-off, known as the SALT deduction, which reduced the cost of the Republican tax law by hundreds of billions of dollars.

In a pitch to New York voters ahead of a rally on Long Island, an area that could be key to his party maintaining control of the House, Trump casually included repealing the SALT cap alongside his vow to reduce crime and illegal immigration.

“I will turn it around, get SALT back, lower your Taxes, and so much more,” Trump wrote on his website .

The SALT switcheroo follows several other dubious Trump campaign promises , such as a proposal for the government to cover the cost of infertility treatments known as IVF; a tax break on income from tips; no taxes on Social Security benefits; and no taxes on income from overtime work. Not to mention getting gas prices under $2 a gallon and mortgage rates below 3%. Some of the proposals are reminiscent of Trump’s unfulfilled vow in 2016 to make Mexico pay for a border wall.

Outside of House Republicans in the New York delegation, GOP lawmakers on Capitol Hill seemed confounded by Trump’s SALT proposal.

“If you do away with the SALT cap ― the Democrats want to do away with it ― it would be benefiting the same 1% that they condemn Trump for