Donald Trump will meet with northeastern House Republicans this weekend to discuss expanding the State And Local Tax (SALT) deduction. Trump smartly put a $10,000 cap on this loophole in his 2017 tax bill.

To repeat ourselves: this is the most counterproductive and unfair write offs in the tax code. There is no justification for this deduction at any amount anywhere at any time. It simply rewards blue states and cities for their high taxes and their costly government services.

A case in point. Florida and New York have roughly the same number of residents. But New York spends nearly TWICE as much on state/local services as Florida does, even though New York has worse services than Florida.  Yet no state (other than California ) receives more benefit from this tax break than New York. Crazy – especially when almost all the benefit goes to millionaires and billionaires living in Hollywood, Silicon Valley and Manhattan.

This really is a tax cut for the rich.

We have said that we could live with doubling the Salt deduction to $20,000 but only if that is offset by capping or preferably ending the corporate SALT deduction. Ford shouldn’t get the tax deduction when the auto repair shop down the street doesn’t.  New York Republican Mike Lawler’s proposal to raise the cap by 1900% to $200,000 should obviously be a nonstarter.