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Republicans in Congress gearing up to negotiate an extension of Donald Trump's twenty seventeen tax cuts. A group of House Republicans we're invited to meet with Trump this weekend at Mari Laco and are expected to push to include an expansion of salt tax deductions in Congress's upcoming package. A place to say that joining us now is one of those House Republicans. Congressman Michael Awner of New York Congressman Fantastical,
catch up with you once again, sir. I just want to know, from your perspective, how many friends you have outside of New York in the House that would be on board with this effort.
A lot more than people realize.
Obviously New York, New Jersey, and California three of the high tax states where this has most acutely impacted. Certainly we have a coalition, and given our small majority in the House, it's certainly a powerful coalition. But there's other states and members across the country in which, you know, over the last seven years they've seen their own taxes rise up against that ten thousand dollars cap. So quietly there's a few more members than.
People would realize, but would realize.
Look, the cap on salt was a pay for for the twenty seventeen tax Cuts in Jobs Act.
That's it.
It was used as a pay for to pay for other provisions within the tax bill. The ten thousand dollars cap is woefully insufficient. It's had a negative impact on states like New York. Now we can get into how New York excessively spends. They've increased their state budget by sixty one billion dollars in the last four years, for instance.
That needs to change.
But taxpayers should not be penalized by living in a high tax state.
This is double taxation.
And for those of my colleagues that say this is somehow a subsidy, the fact is New York contributes more to the federal government than it receives, and more than some of these states in which you know my colleagues will claim that they don't want their taxpayers subsidizing New York, but the reality is it's the other way around.
Congressman, you certainly don't have a friend though, And someone like Lindsey Graham, the center of South Carolina, who said, why should I from South Carolina pay for what's going on in some of these blue states. And he's pushing for this one big sorry for the two bill approach because he doesn't want to talk about taxes, he thinks it's going to take too long, and he doesn't frankly
want to sign up for salt. How are you going to convince the President this weekend that you should do one bill together and make sure salts included.
Well, Respectfully, South Carolina is one of those states that gets more back, certainly percentage wise than New York does. So you know, if we want to talk about subsidies, we can go after and burst through everybody's subsidies that they get. Look with respect to one versus too. The President has already made clear he is moving forward on one big bill. We need to deal with taxes, the border,
energy debt, among other issues. And the fact is, given our small margin in the House, we're going to need everybody's vote and everybody on board.
Two track bills are going to make that harder.
So while it may take a little bit more time to get one bill negotiated, it is necessary if we're going to get all of these issues addressed. And I think the President understands SID. I think that's why the President made clear last week one bill, and that's how we are proceeding forward.
In the House.
And look, ultimately, our Senate and House Republican majorities are going to have to work together. Nobody's going to get everything they want out of this. There's going to have to be a good faith negotiation if we have any chance of passing a reconciliation bill.
I was one of those individuals who watched your festivus airing of grievances during the Christmas week and you did a little bit of a wink at your potential future maybe becoming the governor of New York to make sure you could potentially go down that path, do you need to secure a higher salt tax break.
Look, regardless of whether or not I run for governor, this was a promise of mine and it's a top priority for my district. I represent one of the highest tax districts in the country, inclusive of Westchester and Rockland Counties number one and number two highest property tax counties in America. So this is critically important. To lift the
cap on salt. Ten thousand dollars is woefully insufficient, and this is something that I said I would deliver on, and we're going to as part of this reconciliation bill. Long term for New York, this is critical. We lead the nation in out migration. Our tax base is eroding, in large part because of the disastrous policies of Cappy Hokel and Albany Democrats. One party rule in Albany has been an abject disaster, whether you're talking about the affordability
crisis or public safety. People being burned alive on subways, pushed in front of oncoming subway trains. Kappy Hochl now scamming New Yorkers out of twenty five hundred dollars a year just for the privilege of driving to work, while spending billions of dollars of taxpayer money on free housing, clothing, food, education, and healthcare for illegal immigrants. New York needs change, there's
no question about that. But from a federal perspective, we should not be penalizing New York taxpayers because of the disastrous decisions of Cappy HOCl and Albany Democrats.
And just to be clear, comes to the salt cap, how high are you looking for it to be raised?
Look, I've introduced legislation.
You know, my marriage penalty elimination bill reintroduced to raise it to one hundred thousand dollars for individuals two hundred thousand dollars for married couples.
This is going to be a negotiation.
My colleagues and I are looking forward to sitting down with the President having a discussion about it, hearing obviously what his priorities are as part of the tax bill, and working to a consensus. At the end of the day, my objective is to provide tax relief to hard working Americans. It's incumbent upon everybody to negotiate in good faith because here's the reality. If we do not pass a tax bill number one, salt comes back unlimited, but it is
accompanied by the largest tax increase in American history. So it is important that we actually negotiate a fair tax deal for the American people in August.
I just want to end on this. You are one of these individuals that wrote a letter to the Speaker talking about that you didn't want the repeal of energy tax credits with the IRA. This is something that president like Donald Trump wants. Are you going to be trying to assuage him of your view over this weekend in mar Lago.
Look, many provisions of the IRA absolutely need to be repealed. What we signed on to a letter is that we were not going to just sign off on a wholesale repeal. There needed to be a discussion and again a negotiation. Companies make decisions based on tax provisions, and they need certainty. And there's already been significant investment, including in New York, based on some of these energy tax credits, and so we want to make sure that any changes are done
smartly and not just wholesale repeal. So that'll be part of the discussion and conversation as we move forward. And again, I think the key here is to come up with a reconciliation bill that increases domestic production of energy, ensures the American people have a good, smart tax bill to reduce their taxes, reduce the cost of living here in the US, and ultimately secures our border.
It's a lot of.
Important issues that have to be included in this reconciliation bill. It's going to require negotiation, and it's going to ultimately require every Republican supporting the final product.
A Congressman, as we speak, Bonyold of climbing and We've seen quite a significant move since September when the Federal Reserve standing its rate cutting effort. We've moved one hundred basis points. And I certainly don't expect you to follow the ins and outs of fixed income on any given day, but I wonder whether you and your colleagues are sensitive to some of the pressure that is starting to build in the US dept market.
No question, Look, our tet at thirty six trillion dollars total and counting, is a major problem. And this is something that everybody in the Republican Conference is in agreement on.
We have to tackle our debt.
We have to reduce our deficit spending, we have to right size the federal government.
Spending is out of control.
Joe Biden's disastrous first two years gave us record inflation it spite the cost of living.
And we have to unwind a lot of this.
You look at a state like New York, it is floundering because of some of the economic pressures.
And just think about this.
The MTA has more debt than eighty percent of the states in the country. So debt is a major problem. It's something that we have to deal with across the board. We cannot continue to print and borrow money at the levels.
That we have.
Do you think we can and afford to extend CCJA, which baseline is something like four to five trillion? Do you think we can afford to include an expansion of cell tax deductions? And Congressman, I wouldn't push back against anything you said about the effort that needs to take place elsewear, I'm just wondering how much fiscal space you and your colleagues believe we actually have at the moment.
Look, tax policy is critical to economic growth, but it's one part. We need to increase domestic production of energy, which will help generate more revenues. Energy policy is also critical, not just domestically for cost, but for national security. You were talking obviously about the threats to Europe from Russia. Europe is still buying gas from Russia. It's idiotic. It makes no sense that they're helping fund the very war they're trying to stop. So there is a lot that
has to be done here, including reigning in federal spending. Obviously, as we work through the tax cuts, we will look to help offset some of the cost through spending reduction. So this is going to be a comprehensive approach to how we right size the American economy. I do think it's possible. It's going to be one of the most critical things any of us ever do in our careers in government. And so we all have to be committed to the final cause here and.
We're certainly looking forward to continue in the conversation with you, sir, in your current capacity and maybe in the future. Is the next government of the great State of New York. Mike Lauda there, Congressman, thank you, sir, appreciate it.