New York Millionaire Challenges Sen. Schumer on His Support for Eliminating SALT Deduction Cap

Earlier this week, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) publicly advocated for the next round of coronavirus legislation to include eliminating the SALT deduction cap put in place by the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. This cap is one of the few progressive parts of that piece of legislation, disproportionately affecting wealthy taxpayers.

In response to Sen. Schumer's remarks, Morris Pearl, former managing director at Blackrock, Inc., Chair of the Patriotic Millionaires, and New York resident, issued the following statement:

"In the middle of an unprecedented crisis, with millions of Americans unemployed and tens of millions of Americans weeks away from being evicted, the rich people who earn enough to reach the SALT cap are the last people that the government should be concerned with helping. The next round of coronavirus legislation should focus on giving assistance to people who are actually struggling to get by, not millionaires like me.

The best way for Senator Schumer to help states and localities weather the economic effects of COVID-19 would be to focus on ensuring the next package includes adequate funding for those state and local governments. Cutting the SALT cap does nothing to help the vast majority of Americans or even the majority of people living in blue states. It's just another tax cut, mostly for the rich, and we already have too many politicians in Washington whose answer to every problem is to cut taxes for the rich. We don't need Democratic leadership doing the same.

Making this unnecessary and regressive tax cut a priority in the midst of the worst economic and public health crisis in the last 50 years would be opposed to everything that the Democratic party should be standing for."

For further comments or questions, please contact Sam Quigley at sam@patrioticmillionaires.org.