House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Monday blasted her home state GOP colleagues for supporting the House tax-reform bill despite the risk to their districts posed by eliminating the state and local tax deduction.
Pelosi emphasized that the legislation would have failed without the support of 11 California Republicans, many of whom are among Democrats’ top targets heading into the 2018 midterm elections.
“The more Californians learn about the bill, the more pressure Republicans will be under to change it. Only if California Republicans understand the political consequences will the bill be stopped,” Pelosi said in a statement.
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Only three California Republicans — Reps. Darrell Issa, Tom McClintock and Dana Rohrabacher — were among the 13 GOP defectors last week. House GOP leaders could only have afforded 23 defections and still passed the legislation.
The three California GOP lawmakers who opposed the bill all cited the legislation’s proposed elimination of the state and local tax deduction, which many of their constituents use to prevent double taxation in a high-tax state. The House GOP tax plan would also cap the property tax deduction at $10,000, unlike the Senate version which does not include such a provision.
“Unfortunately, I fear that the plan as approved could actually make the incredible burden our state’s taxpayers feel even worse. I voted no because my constituents don’t deserve a tax increase,” Issa wrote in an Orange County Register op-ed.
The rest of the Republican members in the California congressional delegation, led by House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), voted for the legislation: Reps. Doug LaMalfa, Paul Cook, Jeff Denham, David Valadao, Devin Nunes, Steve Knight, Ed Royce, Ken Calvert, Mimi Walters and Duncan Hunter.
More than half of those lawmakers are at the top of Democrats’ target lists for next year’s elections. Denham, Valadao, Knight, Royce and Walters all represent crossover districts won by Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.
Some of those Republicans said that they voted for the legislation based on pledges from GOP leaders to make changes later.
Walters, for example, said in a statement that she “received a personal commitment” from House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady (R-Texas) that “changes will be made to the final version of tax reform to benefit Orange County residents.”
An analysis by the Tax Policy Center found that 46 percent of returns filed in Walters’s district used the state and local tax deduction.
“Unfortunately, due to reckless tax and spend policies enacted by the California State Legislature, California suffers from the highest taxes in the nation. We must ensure Washington doesn’t put similar tax burdens on Orange County residents,” Walters said.
Valadao, meanwhile, said that only 17 percent of his Central Valley district’s residents currently itemize their tax returns and estimated that number would drop to 5 percent under the GOP tax proposal.
“By creating a simpler and fairer tax code, we will create jobs, grow our economy and increase the amount of money Central Valley workers take home,” Valadao said.