Majority Leader Schumer Floor Remarks On The Former President Promising To Reverse The Cap On SALT Deductions That Same Former President Signed Into Law

Washington, D.C. – Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) today spoke on the Senate floor on former president Donald Trump insisting that he will reverse the cap on state and local tax deduction that he signed into law in 2017. Below are Senator Schumer’s remarks, which can also be viewed here:

In the eight long years that Donald Trump has been in politics, one thing is beyond doubt: what Donald Trump says and what Donald Trump does are often two very different things.

Donald Trump says he fights for working people, and then ushers in perhaps the most anti-worker administration in modern times as President.

Donald Trump claims he’s a “leader on fertilization, IVF,” whatever that means. But his MAGA Justices overturned Roe and cast women’s reproductive care into chaos.

Yesterday, Donald Trump did it again – totally reversing himself – claiming that he will reverse the cap on state and local tax deductions.

But Donald Trump must be suffering from selective amnesia, because he was the one who took away people’s SALT deductions in the first place. His tax bill did it – a dagger aimed at blue states that want to spend a little more to help people with housing, and healthcare, and education, transportation.

All of a sudden, now that he is on Long Island, Donald Trump’s selective amnesia kicks in and he totally reverses himself on SALT. But we know Donald Trump, we know what his MO is. He’s going to do nothing. He’s simply trying to escape the anger of many families he’s upset when he placed those caps, which affect so many middle-class people, particularly in higher-cost areas like Long Island.

So, he shows up in Long Island, says he's changed his mind, and we know he'll do nothing about it. And then, when some of his more right-wing people go to him and say “you can't do it,” he'll say “okay.” So, this is not only an empty promise, but it shows the hypocrisy of Donald Trump.

For Donald Trump to pretend he’s found religion on eliminating the SALT caps – two months before an election, speaking in Long Island – is comical, it’s unserious, and it shows the lack of integrity that this man has. His promises carry about as much weight as Monopoly money.

Remember: the SALT cap was one of the key parts of Donald Trump’s own tax law. Congressional Republicans pushed the cap, he signed it.

Donald Trump’s own Treasury Secretary, Steve Mnuchin, called SALT a subsidy for states like New York, even though for decades New York paid tens of billions more in taxes than we received from the federal government.

And to this day, SALT caps remain in place because extreme Republicans have blocked any attempt to fix this defective policy.

I have been a loud proponent of eliminating the SALT cap from the start. As long as I am Leader, I’ll do everything in my power so that when these caps expire at the end of next year they will not come back.

Double taxing hardworking homeowners on Long Island, in the Hudson Valley – and across New York, and many other states as well, mainly blue states – is plainly unfair, and it could not have come at a worse time than the last few years, with so much chaos caused by COVID and the economic turmoil it unleashed.

So, for families frustrated by the SALT caps, so many on Long Island – firefighters, police officers, construction workers, who make good salaries – they’ve got Donald Trump and Congressional Republicans to thank for their pain.

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