Let’s see: a piece of legislation passed by the Constitutionally elected Legislative Branch, signed by the duly and Constitutionally elected President. The only thing in the Constitution about taxation is that the federal government can have one. And this is what a few #resist weenies want to do
(Washington Post) The governors of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut said Friday that they are forming a multistate coalition to sue the Trump administration over the 2017 tax bill, challenging the constitutionality of a provision that limits Americans ability to deduct their state and local taxes from their federal bill.
The law sets a new cap of $10,000 on the amount of state and local property and income taxes that can be deducted from federal taxable income. That will disproportionately harm their residents, the governors said in a conference call, and is motivated by politics rather than sound fiscal policy. Residents most affected by the provision live in states run by Democrats that tend to have higher state and local tax rates, they said.
“The new federal tax law destroyed a century-old tax structure between the federal government and the states,†New York Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo said on Twitter. “New York will sue.â€
It doesn’t matter. There’s nothing in the Constitution that precludes the new tax structure. And arguing against it could, potentially, have the chance in a judge, or even the Supreme Court, ruling that all deductions of state and local property and income taxes are out of bounds, and there should be no deductions. That would be a bite in the nether-regions for high-tax states, would it not?
Megan McArdle notes this lawsuit idea, as a well as a few other bad ideas from Democrats to attempt to regain that tax money, and ends with
Given the problems with all of these strategies, it is a measure of state desperation that these are the ideas on the table — and that they are being seriously considered. In the end, these places may even be forced to consider the truly audacious Option 4: cut their taxes and learn to live within a new, tighter budget.
But, they won’t, at least not the majority of them. At the end of the day, elected Democrats want that spending money more than they want to take care of their citizens.
