Washington – The Republicans of the Chamber are locked up in a tense confrontation on how to tackle the Federal deduction for state and local taxesOr salt, a sticky problem that could make or undo the major party bill for President Donald Trump’s agenda.
THE Current fight Not only opposed the representative Jason Smith, R-MO., The president of the Chamber of Taxes Committee, against a determined block of the Republicans of the House of Blue States with high taxes; He also created divisions between the Pro-Salts Republicans, undermining their lever of negotiation and complicating the path to an agreement.
While some of them are ready to accept a Smith offer to raise the ceiling at $ 30,000, another faction categorically rejects this figure as insufficient. And they have become more and more frustrated by some of their colleagues to, in their opinion, to settle for a low -ball offer.
These tensions reached a boiling point on Tuesday when the Pro-Salts Republicans met in the office of President Mike Johnson to discuss the strategy, and asked the representative Nicole Malliotakis, RN.Y. – A member of the panel of tracks and means which supports the ceiling of $ 30,000 – to leave, according to two sources of the room.
“She was not invited and is not part of our negotiation. That is why we asked her to leave,” said one of the sources in the room, which described the moment under the cover of anonymity. “Jason Smith said yesterday that it was not his job to negotiate with us, so nobody understands why he sent it there.”
It was a shocking moment of mistrust within the faction – a suggestion that Maliotakis was not there to advance their cause, but to be a mole for Smith as they looked at him in a negotiation with high issues. Rep. Claudia Tenney, RN.Y., another salt supporter who sits on the way and means committee, pointed out on social networks that she was not invited either in Reunion.
A few hours later, Malliotakis voted in the Committee for the bill With the ceiling of $ 30,000Saying in a press release that this “will provide an essential relief for the middle class and will cover 98% of the families of my district”. Tenney also supported the bill.
The Top House Republicans have highlighted their support for $ 30,000 to suggest that a quartet of other New York Republicans who want a greater deduction – representatives. Elise Stefanik, Mike Lawler, Nick Lalota and Andrew Garbarino – are unreasonable. But taxes vary according to the district, which explains why each member has a different level, he is ready in the stomach for the deduction. Republicans of the 2017 tax law now seek to extend a ceiling of $ 10,000 for tax and local tax deductions.
These four New York Republicans are held so far and have the power to flow the entire bill in the narrow majority of the Chamber, where Johnson has only three votes to lose.
Stefanik, member of the Johnson management team who had a frozen relationship With the president lately, has played a main role in talks. Representative Young Kim, R-Calif., Which represents one of the most taxed districts in the country, has also lined up closely with the group of New York Republicans. Now, it is up to Johnson to conclude an agreement and to appease the selected – many of them of the swing districts which will decide which part controls the room in the mid -term elections of 2026 – on the ground of the house.
Asked about the incident at the meeting on Tuesday, Maliotakis told NBC News in a press release: “As the only member of the Caucus de Salt on the ways and means, all I know is that they can sit and negotiate with themselves everything they want, but there will be no change unless I and the Committee accepts.”
Malliotakis said that even if everyone should defend their districts, his goal is to achieve a resolution and “deliver a big and beautiful bill for America”.
Later, the Republican of Staten Island said that she huddled with Johnson, Smith and other ways and the members of the committee “for hours” on Tuesday evening to try to find a path to follow on salt.
“I think there is room for a better offer, but the firm window,” Maliotakis told journalists. “The more it takes time and the more the Memorial Day that we obtain, the low sodium content of many of my colleagues on the ways and means are developing.”
Smith’s office and Johnson’s office did not respond to requests for comments. But the speaker publicly insisted that they will conclude an agreement on salt, although he recognized that he could take the weekend to get there. Johnson said he is organizing a meeting on Thursday morning between pro-Salts Republicans and some members of the Freedom House Freedom caucus, who do not want to increase the salt ceiling less unless they get higher cups in Medicaid.
Flare tensions
In order for an agreement to remain elusive, the members of the Salt Caucus have publicly targeted their fire on Smith, which, according to them, was trying to put them in the lead with the increase in the committee of its part of the wider package, although it is not unusual for hot button problems.
However, some pro-Salts Republicans wanted Smith to delay this week’s markup to give them more time to find a solution, and the speaker asked if Smith could respond to this demand, according to two Republican members and another source of the GOP familiar with the question. But the markup took place as planned.
There was also another tense moment before the markup, when Smith informed the Pro-Salts Republicans on his plan to move forward with the $ 30,000 ceiling. During a video meeting on Monday, Smith told his colleagues that it was not his job to negotiate with the Republicans of Salt Caucus, but the work of the speaker, as NBC News previously reported. Smith explained that his bill reflects the will of his committee, not the Salt Caucus, the sources said.
“Someone should go and ask the speaker how he ranks this as a negotiation when his own president said:” I have to negotiate with anyone, I just have to negotiate with my “”, Lawler to journalists told. “His chair must be recalled that he would not have a hammer F — Without the members of Salt Caucus.”
The group refuses to publicly declare its requests, apart from wanting to increase the higher ceiling to the current proposal. Behind the scenes, however, several GOP sources said that the group was pressure for a ceiling of $ 40,000 for individuals and $ 80,000 for couples. But it would cost the funds from tax policies with wider support for the GOP, both in the Chamber and in the Senate.
While the negotiations light up, the salt members have tried to draw more attention to their company problem by distributing salt packs outside the speaker’s office and wearing salty pins that say: “feel salty”.
“We will continue to speak with the speaker, in particular,” said Lalota. “Unfortunately, the way and means committee refused to really negotiate with us in good faith. We discuss these questions with the speaker. “
It is an uncomfortable situation for almost all the Republicans involved. None of them wants to be considered exalted from Trump’s agenda. But salt is such a determinant problem in their districts – a reason why some of their predecessors lost the re -election after imposing the ceiling of $ 10,000 – that they could pay a political price if the voters think they have accepted a half -cooked agreement. Stefanik and Lawler also plan races for the governor in New York, which makes even more politically imperative to act.
Lalota said that he was not concerned about the decline outside of Long Island. “I’m here to make my voters happy,” he said right next to the house. “It’s my priority.”
In another sign that the leaders of the GOP peel the key votes, representative Jeff Van Drew, RN.J., who also represents a high tax area, said that he supported the offer of $ 30,000 – and encouraged his colleagues to be willing to compromise.
“They are fighting for their voters. I understand that they have very high taxes. So we have in New Jersey. I try to be aware of making this great and beautiful bill, and one of the means is that we will all have to give a little,” he said.
“So we have people from the red states who do not want to do a penny, I don’t even want to do the $ 10,000 who were there. We have people from other states that want $ 100,000 or $ 200,000. Neither the extreme, in my opinion, that’s where we are going to go,” he added. “It’s going to be somewhere between the two.
Salt fight has also created tensions between more moderate Republicans and the extreme right of the conference.
The representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-GA., Complained about the salt thrust of her colleagues and Signié Lawler on social networksSaying that he “is generally not the guy of the conference with the best ideas”.
Locator Hit Greene on XBy saying “shocking, the” laser lady of Jewish space “has no idea what she is talking about has once.”
He later told journalists that he will not change his mind “because Marjorie Taylor Greene is launching a silent adjustment.”