Republican Tax Cuts

Floor Speech

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Mr. SUOZZI. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding, and I thank him for bringing attention to this important issue.

I am going to talk about the State and local tax deduction in some detail, but first let me just say generally that what we are talking about is so important. We have so many of our friends on the other side of the aisle who are constantly talking about how the government spends too much money and how deficits are getting so much bigger.

Here, under their tax bill that they are proposing right now, they are going to increase the deficit in the United States by $4.5 trillion. Now, that doesn't make any sense. Why would they propose something when they have people on their side who their singular most important issue is reducing the deficit, but they would increase the deficit by $4.5 trillion?

Now, my colleague talked about the tax cuts from 2017, well, a lot of my residents didn't see a tax deduction. They saw a tax increase. The reason they saw a tax increase is because they capped the State and local tax deduction at $10,000.

Let me just explain what the State and local tax deduction is. The State and local tax deduction was in place for 100 years, from 1913 until 2017. In 1930, they started the Federal income tax code in the United States of America. When they said we are going to tax people's income at the Federal level, a lot of Governors, mayors, and local elected officials said, no, they don't want a Federal income tax because that will stop them from raising the taxes at the State and local level. Since America's founding, government was mainly paid for at the State and local level through State and local taxes. The Federal Government was funded by tariffs, quite frankly, a very interesting topic for today.

When the mayors and Governors protested, they said: We don't want to have a Federal income tax because you are going to hurt us. We don't want to pay taxes on the taxes we have already paid at the State and local level.

The Federal Government said: Don't worry about it. We will put a deduction in place that says you can deduct your State and local taxes from your income, so you don't have to pay taxes on the taxes you have already paid.

Okay, let's do that. They put it in place for 100 years.

In 2017, they said we are going to cap this deduction that has been in place for over 100 years at $10,000. They took the long arm of the Federal Government and reached into local governments. They violated the covenant of federalism, and they said: We are going to make you pay taxes on the taxes you have already paid to your States, to your cities, to your towns, to your villages, to your school districts. We are going to tax you on the money you have already paid in taxes at the State and local levels.

That caused some people's taxes to go up, especially in high-tax States that happen to be Democratic States, such as in New York, New Jersey, California, Connecticut, Illinois, Massachusetts, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Rhode Island, and Hawaii. They caused people's taxes to go up because they could no longer deduct their State and local taxes.

It is not fair. In fact, people have moved away from our States to other lower tax States.

Why are taxes higher in my State and in your State compared to, say, Florida and Texas? They are higher because in New York State and in California, we insure our children. We have the lowest rates of uninsured children in the United States of America and the lowest rates of uninsured adults in the United States of America, whereas Florida and Texas have the highest rates of uninsured children and uninsured adults.

Our taxes are higher in our States because we pay our teachers, police officers, firefighters, and other public workers in public employee unions and other union workers higher wages. They don't like unions in Florida, Texas, and other low-tax States.

It is not fair that in States like mine and yours, Mr. Thompson, and other Democratic States, we are net donors to the Federal Government. We send more money to the Federal Government than we get back.

A lot of our colleagues criticize our States. They say it is so ineffective the way we are running our States. Why is it that we are doing so well economically that we are the biggest net donors to the Federal Government? We send more money to the Federal Government in income taxes than we get back in Federal contracts and Federal programs.

In fact, most of the red States in the United States of America are net takers, and most of the blue States are net donors, so it is not fair. It is very different from State to State in our country, but in my State, for example, and in Mr. Thompson's State, similarly, if you have a teacher and a police officer who are married, their income could be over $150,000, $200,000 a year. In our States, because the taxes are higher, because the cost of living is higher, the cost of housing is higher, so that $150,000 to $200,000 a year is not a wealthy person. That is a middle-class person.

I talked to a friend of mine from Oklahoma, and I told him that person making $150,000 between the husband and wife is middle class. They said: $150,000 a year? If they lived in my State, they would be living in a gated community. They would belong to the country club.

That is not what it is like. It is different from place to place.

We set up these different State and city governments throughout our country to be laboratories of democracy, to run their States and their cities the way they see fit, to tax them as they see fit, and the one way that they used the Federal income tax code to move forward was to have a State and local tax deduction that was ripped away from them in 2017.

Some of my colleagues on the Republican side have said they will not support this new tax bill unless we restore the State and local tax deduction. We would like to see a complete repeal of the cap. We would like to have you be able to claim all of your State and local taxes. We passed it three times when the Democrats were in charge. We passed it once, complete repeal; twice, complete repeal; third time, $80,000 cap.

Some Republicans have proposed a cap of $25,000. Five Republicans have stood up and said $25,000 is not acceptable. I want to commend them for standing up for their residents and taxpayers against their party and saying they will not support this bill.

President Trump came to my State, actually right near my district in Nassau County, where I used to be the county executive. He spoke at a campaign rally in the summer of 2024, and he said we have to restore the State and local tax deduction. Now, he is the one who took it away. He said that we have to restore the State and local tax deduction. Well, let's hold the President to that.

Let's commend our five colleagues who are standing up against their party to say they want to raise the State and local tax deduction.

Let's be fair to these middle-class families. Let's be fair to these States. Let's be fair to these mayors, Governors, and county executives. Let's be fair to our firefighters and teachers. Let's be fair to make sure that these States that are net donors to the Federal Government are treated with the proper respect and dignity that they deserved throughout America's history and stop penalizing them for trying to serve their residents the best way they can.

Again, I appreciate the gentleman for yielding.

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