Failure to Pass Tax Bill 'Simply Not An Option,' Nicole Malliotakis

New York GOP Representative Nicole Malliotakis said her fellow blue-state Republicans should take the deal on the table to raise the SALT deduction cap to get the tax-bill passed.

President Donald Trump is growing frustrated with demands to significantly boost the cap on the state and local tax deduction, according to a senior administration official, signaling a deadlock as Republicans aim to quickly pass a giant tax-cut bill.

Trump told lawmakers in a meeting on Tuesday not to let the SALT deduction or differences over social safety-net cuts impede the bill. But afterwards members of warring factions told reporters they were still dug in in opposing the bill unless their changes are made.

Trump urged Republicans from New York and other high-tax states to wait to try to raise the SALT limit further until after Congress is done with the tax legislation, the official said, a proposal that is likely to draw backlash from SALT lawmakers who see the president’s “one big, beautiful bill” as their sole shot to address a political priority that dates back to 2017.

Trump is also losing patience with a faction of conservative hardliners pushing for deeper cuts to Medicaid health coverage for the poor and disabled, the official said. The president implored Republicans to stick together and pass the bill the official said, adding that Trump expects every Republican to vote for the bill on the floor.

Trump told lawmakers in a closed-door meeting on Tuesday he wants to keep the SALT deduction limit at $30,000, the level in the draft legislation. That’s three times the current $10,000 cap.

In that meeting, Trump singled out the lawmakers from New York, New Jersey and California who have rejected the $30,000 deduction limit, saying it is insufficient to win their votes.

At least two New York lawmakers, Nick LaLota and Mike Lawler, said after the meeting that they aren’t backing down and won’t support the tax package as written.

“My middle class constituents should not be shut out of this process,” LaLota said.

Several SALT advocates have said they are willing to block Trump’s bill without a bigger deduction, and are unlikely to heed the president’s advice to address the issue later. Those lawmakers believe the tax reconciliation package is their only real opportunity to secure more SALT in the foreseeable future because they have negotiating leverage to hold up Trump’s top legislative priorities.

Trump as a presidential candidate and in the White House has pledged bigger SALT deductions, a policy reversal after his first-term tax cut legislation imposed the current $10,000 cap.

During the meeting with House Republicans, the president spoke individually with holdouts both from high-tax states and conservative hardliners, Representative Lauren Boebert of Colorado said.

But ultraconservatives said they were no more swayed by Trump’s arguments than were SALT lawmakers.

“We aren’t doing enough on Medicaid,” House Freedom Caucus Chairman Andy Harris said after the meeting. The Maryland lawmaker said he would still oppose the tax bill as written.

The current version of the legislation places new work requirements on able-bodied adults and imposes fees for health care services on more Medicaid beneficiaries.

Representative Andy Biggs, a Republican hardliner from Arizona, said he was unmoved by calls to move quickly on the bill, saying he was more focused on the final product than the timeline.

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