A small group of Republicans from high-tax states held the fate of the biggest tax legislation in nearly a decade in the palm of their hands.With a wire-thin majority in the House, the group of five knew that leadership needed all of their votes. If they banded together, they could use the entirety of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act as leverage to get President Donald Trump and Republicans to agree to raise the $10,000 cap on deductions for state and local taxes, or SALT — the biggest tax priority for the group of Republicans, which included Reps. Mike Lawler (NY), Nick LaLota (NY), Andrew Garbarino (NY), Young Kim (CA), and Tom Kean (NJ).But they knew they would face massive pressure from other Republicans — the overwhelming majority of whom wanted to limit SALT deductions, which mainly benefit Democrat-run states — and from Trump.
Indeed, Trump ratcheted up the pressure. In late May, the president addressed the Republican House conference, in which he lambasted the SALT deduction and told the group of Republican holdouts to fall in line.Yet Trump’s badgering, which even featured him telling Lawler that he knew his Hudson Valley district better than the congressman did, backfired.LaLota told the Washington Examiner that Trump had a prepared speech to deliver to the conference, but threw it aside and launched into his own 45-minute speech, about half of which was a diatribe against the SALT deduction.
