In 2017, the Republican Congress passed real tax reform legislation. Democrats claimed it was just tax cuts for the rich, but they pretty much always say that. What is funny about that claim (“funny” in the bizarre sense, not funny in the ha-ha sense) is that one of the things the Democrats objected to the most in the reform was the limitation on the deduction of state and local taxes (i.e., the “Salt deduction”) to $10,000 for a couple, even though the legislation also doubled the standard deduction. For most people, and especially middle class and below, this was a great deal. It made tax filing simpler, and it saved them some money. For upper middle class people in states with high local taxes, i.e., Democratic states, it wasn’t. So, Democrats from states like California, New York, New Jersey, etc., have been pushing hard to reinstate the full SALT deduction ever since, even though it would almost entirely benefit the upper middle class.1
In any case, then-House Speaker Paul Ryan and other Republicans did real tax reform.2 They were trying to make the tax system better: simpler, easier to comply with, less inefficient, raising the most money with the fewest negative impacts on the economy. In other words, real tax reform.
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