Key Vote Alert – “NO” ON H.R. 7160 – SALT MARRIAGE PENALTY ELIMINATION ACT

The Club for Growth urges all Representatives to vote NO on H.R 7160 – SALT Marriage Penalty Elimination Act. The results of this vote will be included in the Club for Growth Foundation’s 2024 congressional scorecard. Additionally, the Club urges members to oppose the underling rule that would facilitate consideration of the bill.

The State and Local Tax deduction, commonly referred to as SALT, allows left-wing jurisdictions to raise taxes, supercharge spending and offload those costs onto taxpayers in fiscally responsible states. It is a tax deduction that exclusively benefits wealthy taxpayers in liberal states, regardless of any attempts at window-dressing to modify its scope. Even worse, the push to uncap the SALT deduction is based on a myth that it was widely used by middle-class taxpayers in blue states – which is demonstrably false.

President Trump’s tax cuts wisely capped this deduction at $10,000 for all taxpayers regardless of filing status – with the exception of a $5,000 cap for married individuals filing separately. H.R. 7160 would allow married couples earning up to $500,000 to double this amount to $20,000. While proponents of this bill claim that this relief is “targeted”, the simple fact is it will force working class taxpayers to further subsidize those making as much as $500,000 in states that have willingly chosen to implement reckless tax-and-spend policies.

Lawmakers must defeat this misguided legislation and maintain the $10,000 cap on this wasteful special interest deduction. Additionally, lawmakers should work towards the complete elimination of the SALT deduction while continuing and improving on the pro-growth reforms enacted in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA).

Club for Growth Foundation’s Congressional Scorecard for the 118th Congress provides a comprehensive rating of how well or how poorly each member of Congress supports pro-growth, free-market policies and will be distributed to the public.