Grassley rips Pelosi bid to roll back deduction cap: ‘Millionaires don’t need a new tax break’

The office of Senate Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, blasted House Speaker Nancy Pelosi after she proposed rolling back a cap on state and local tax (SALT) deductions as part of the next coronavirus response bill.

The SALT cap, which was put in place by President Trump’s 2017 tax reform law, limits deductions of state and local tax from federal taxes at $10,000. The cap has been particularly unpopular in high-tax blue states. Grassley’s office argued that eliminating this now would not help the working class, as it would mostly benefit wealthier Americans.

"This is a nonstarter. Millionaires don’t need a new tax break as the federal government spends trillions of dollars to fight a pandemic," a spokesperson for Grassley said.

Pelosi told The New York Times that if Congress repealed the cap and made it retroactive for 2018 and 2019, it would give Americans “more disposable income, which is the lifeblood of our economy, a consumer economy that we are.”

House Democrats have been trying to repeal the SALT cap without success. The cap is currently set to expire in 2025.

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