Senate

Schumer warns House Republicans: Tax bill ‘could be your political doom’

by Jordain Carney - 11/09/17 10:27 AM ET

Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) sent a warning shot to House Republicans on Thursday, saying they will face political consequences if they support getting rid of the state and local tax deduction.

“I say to every one of my Republican colleagues in the House who come from a suburban district: This bill could be your political doom,” Schumer said from the Senate floor.

His comments come as Senate Republicans will meet later Thursday morning to walk through their tax plan, which senators say they expect to include an elimination of the state and local tax deduction.

“This should be a three-alarm fire for every House Republican in California, New York, New Jersey, Virginia, Washington, Illinois, Colorado. … You’ll pay a price. House Republicans should kill the bill now if they want to have any hope of stopping the full repeal of state and local deduction,” Schumer said.

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House Republicans unveiled their own tax bill earlier this month and are marking it up in the House Ways and Means Committee this week. In response to pushback from New Jersey and New York Republicans, they eliminated the deductions for state and local income and sales taxes, but allowed up to $10,000 in deductions of state and local property taxes.

Schumer argued the Senate version of the tax plan is most likely to prevail in a conference committee, where Republicans will need to merge the two versions of their legislation.

Pointing to Tuesday’s elections, where Democrats dominated across the country, Schumer added that the results “should send shivers down the spine of House Republicans who represent those districts.”

“Voting to repeal the state and local deduction … would be political suicide, all to bow down to special wealthy interests, special big interests of large corporations,” he said.

Republicans want to pass their tax plan before the end of the year and said in the wake of this week’s election that they feel growing pressure to deliver on their campaign promises.

Though Republicans face a narrow path to getting a tax plan through the Senate, they don’t need Democratic votes if they can get the support of 50 of their 52 GOP senators, which would let Vice President Pence break a tie.

But Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) urged Democrats to work with them on the bill, noting “the process isn’t behind closed doors. It’s out in the open for everyone to see, for everyone to take part.”

Tags Chuck Schumer Mitch McConnell