Budget

Menendez goes after Sanders over SALT comments

by Aris Folley - 01/26/22 6:20 PM ET

Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) criticized Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) on Wednesday for saying he was “glad to hear” a Democratic proposal to raise the cap on the state and local tax (SALT) deduction was not in play anymore for President Biden’s Build Back Better legislation.

Menendez knocked the remarks from Sanders and noted that the progressive senator has criticized the $10,000 cap, which was put into place by President Trump and a GOP Congress.

“Less than three months ago, @SenSanders stood next to me and said Trump’s $10,000 SALT cap ‘was a regressive and unfair proposal. And this Congress must rectify it.’ Fast forward to Jan. 2022…” the New Jersey Democrat tweeted.

Sanders in an earlier tweet said the Democrats need “to focus on the struggling working class, not giving more tax breaks to the wealthy.”

The Hill has reached out to Sanders’s office for comment on the Menendez tweet.

The Hill reported on Wednesday that Democratic senators do not think raising the SALT ceiling will be included in a final bill unless the cost of doing it is greatly narrowed.

The Trump-imposed ceiling was put into place with the idea that it would hit people living in certain blue states or districts across the country particularly hard.

Proponents of raising the ceiling argue that doing so would provide relieve for middle-class home owners, particularly in places with higher taxes and higher property taxes.

Critics say Democrats should be more focused on other forms of tax relief.

The House passed a version of the package in November that would raise the cap from $10,000 to $80,000.

But that proposal had come under criticism from Republicans as well as Democrats in the Senate, who argued it would largely benefit high-income households. Senators instead were looking at creating an exemption from the $10,000 cap for taxpayers under a certain income level.