MORGANTOWN – Sen. Shelley Moore Capito joined with other GOP senators on Wednesday to slam what they call a hypocritical tax break for the rich included in the House Democrats’ version of the Build Back Better bill.
“Supposedly,” Capito said, “as the president has explained, ‘Nobody under $400,000 is going to bear the tax burden. This is all aimed at helping those who need help the most.’ However, their second priority is to answer the call of those who were in the higher income tax brackets in the states many of them represent, particularly on the House side.”
The House Democratic proposal inserted into BBB before it came to the Senate would raise the state and local tax (SALT) deduction cap from $10,000 to $80,000.
The GOP senators cited data from the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, the Tax Policy Center and the Joint Committee on Taxation to show that 49% of people making $100,000 to $200,000, 65% of people making $200,000 to $500,000, 78% of people making $500,000 to $1 million and 66% of people making $1 million or more would see a tax cut.
People making up to $54,000 per year would see no tax savings, according to the data presented. A $96,000 household would see a $20 tax benefit; a $175,000 household a $90 benefit; a $255,000 household a $420 benefit; a $366,000 household a $1,300 benefit; an $867,000 household a $4,600 benefit; and a household earning more than $867,000 a $14,900 benefit.
Sen. Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, led the press conference. Pointing to a chart, he said, “It is literally showing a transfer of wealth to the wealthiest in our country’s10 largest states.” Wealthy taxpayers in California, New York, New Jersey and Illinois would account for 46% of the measure’s cost.
A breakdown of BBB’s measures show that child care and universal pre-K would cost $300 billion. The SALT (state and local tax) cap measure comes in second at $275 billion. Clean energy and climate measures rank third, at $235 billion. The child tax credit ranks sixth, at $190 billion – $85 billion less than lifting the SALT cap.
Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, played on the BBB initial theme, calling the measure the “Blue-state Billionaire Bailout.”
Capito used the word “hypocrisy” several times, criticizing the bill placing the interests of the rich above all but one of the bill’s social programs.
She said in a release that until the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act was signed into law, which capped the SALT deduction at $10,000, there was no limit on the amount that could be deducted.
She said at the press conference that the 2017 move was a fair way to spread the tax burden. If the bill comes to the floor she plans an amendment to strip out the SALT cap increase and keep the 2017 provisions in place.
“I think that would be well received,” she said. “I think it would be one that we see is fair in terms of spreading the tax burden. And, I think it would also be fair, so those taxpayers in those states are not subsidizing states, and people who live in states who mismanaged their money, who have high taxes, who don’t pay attention to what those impacts are to the people of their state.”
Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, continued the theme of the measure benefiting the wealthy. “This is reverse Robin Hood,” he said.
The Dominion Post contacted Capito’s Democratic colleague, Sen. Joe Manchin, regarding the SALT measure but his office declined comment.
TWEET David Beard @dbeardtdp EMAIL dbeard@dominionpost.com
