Californians Worth Their SALT Tax reform passes the House, thanks to the support of 11 Golden State Republicans. Kimberley Strassel
https://www.wsj.com/articles/californians-worth-their-salt-1510870023
Hell hath no fury like a swamp creature scorned, and that ferocity was trained almost exclusively these past weeks on California House Republicans. The attack was a case study in standing up to entrenched special tax interests, and a lesson to other Republicans in the virtues of having the backbone to go on offense.
The House GOP passed its tax-reform bill on Thursday, and special medals of valor go to the 11 of 14 California Republicans who voted in support. The lobbyist brigade had joined with Democrats to target the Golden State delegation, seeing it as their best shot at peeling off enough Republicans to kill the bill. The assault was brutal, dishonest and all-out.
The National Association of Realtors, incensed that the nation’s millionaires might face limits on their mortgage-interest deduction, staged a “fly-in” to Washington, sending dozens of real-estate agents to harass Californians. The California Association of Realtors took out full-page ads in state and national newspapers, accusing Republicans of “punishing” state homeowners. National and California-based housing and building associations staged press conferences, online ad campaigns, petition drives—targeting everyone from Palmdale’s Steve Knight to the Central Valley’s David Valadao.
Gov. Jerry Brown unleashed on state Republicans, calling them “sheep” for supporting an end to most state and local tax, or SALT, deductions, and sending them letters deploring the tax hit on residents of high-tax California. Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi accused them of “looting” the state. Her Senate counterpart, New York’s Chuck Schumer, warned of “political fallout” that would be “catastrophic.” Liberal groups, super PACs and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee unfurled a digital and TV ad blitz, charging the GOP with “eliminating middle-class tax deductions” to help the wealthy.
This is the reward for attempting to simplify the tax code—the forces of distortion scurry to protect their privileges. Democrats had hoped Republican infighting would tank tax reform. But as the GOP kept marching, the left and special interests instead turned to picking off blue-state Republicans with scare campaigns about mortgage interest and SALT. Most of the New York and New Jersey GOP contingencies quickly caved, which left the Californians to field all the incoming fire. Had they defected in the same manner as their Northeastern colleagues, the bill would have failed.
Their resistance instead shows the virtues of aggressively arguing the tax-reform case. Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy and House Ways and Means member Devin Nunes are Californians themselves, and they worked to keep the delegation armed against the disinformation. The press, for instance, continued to parrot Realtor-fed numbers about super-high house values, even though much of the state outside pricey San Francisco and Los Angeles would not be hit. In Central Valley districts like Mr. Nunes’s, approximately 98% of homes aren’t worth enough to be subject to the $500,000 proposed principal limit on the mortgage-interest deduction. Members made a point of repeating this. Some also reminded middle-class constituents that the left often notes the mortgage deduction mostly benefits wealthier Americans. CONTINUE AT SITE
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