I think the Democrats could have held the House if they had repealed the GOP Tax

[RAB910]

On state and local taxes paid. I can't help but feel like the Democrats missed an opportunity. Such actions would have been big in at least NJ and NY where they lost Congressional races

[JohnSJ]

1. NO. We could have held the house if more people voted. A 50% turnout of registered voters is

nothing to brag about.

https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/turnout-was-high-again-is-this-the-new-normal/

[Ninga]

2. Totally agree. That plus gerrymandering. Damn cheating GQP.

[JohnSJ]

3. You are right, gerrymandering definitely hurt, but we need to have far greater turnouts for all elections, or

we will be stuck in a "ground hog day" scenario for a long time

[RAB910]

4. Delivering on a popular measure tends to drive more people you want to the polls

[JohnSJ]

5. What popular message is that? The infrastructure bill, student loans, preserving a woman's right to

choose, preserving social security and Medicare, preventing price gouging on insulin and other drugs, the chips act, etc etc etc

[RAB910]

6. People in places like NJ and NY are being double taxed thanks to the Republicans

it was a no-brainer to roll back that ugly double tax they instituted. Why didn't they? They lost how many seats between NJ and NY (and they are not the only states that suffered from the Republican's evil schemes)?

[JohnSJ]

7. The votes were not there, and if those in NY and NJ don't realize that, then they are very naive

[inthewind21]

9. Double taxed?

Are you referring to the loss of a deduction. Which is quite different than being double taxed.

[RAB910]

12. You $100 $7 of those dollars go to state and local taxes. The Republicans tax that $7 dollars you

don't have. which is a DOUBLE tax

[MichMan]

22. So are sales taxes and gas taxes

Already paid income taxes on the money. Why aren't those deductible?

In my state we have sales taxes on top of gas taxes, so triple taxed.

[RAB910]

24. The difference is sales tax is post tax money

The GOP is taxing money you never see

[MichMan]

25. You never see income that is used to pay for property taxes ?

[Demsrule86]

8. Doubtful. Abortion was the issue and we lost

the house due to gerrymandering. And New York and California fucked up.

[RAB910]

13. If we are going to pretend to be perfect and not look for things that could be done better

we will lose more

[Demsrule86]

17. You are talking about a personal issue which was not among any of the reasons given for voting

in exit polls. It was not a voting issue.

[RAB910]

19. Do you think it was even on the polls?

That tax was so unpopular that it was a major reason the Democrats got control of the House. It was an unforced error not to score major points by repealing it

[Johonny]

10. I agree

They were swept into power by purple district turnout in the last mid-year running on this issue. They then have done nothing to address the issue. It is unpopular with purple district voters. Even doubling the cap would have been wise. Not addressing it at all was unwise.

Still, they will get another chance to make this a real issue come the GOP tax plan battle that is to come. The GOP plan to extend the Trump tax increase (it didn't cut these people's taxes at all) will be unpopular in purple districts. The senate would be unwise to not include a SALT cap repeal or increase to their counter proposal.

[MichMan]

11. It only affects a handful of states

Most of the rest of the country doesn't understand why wealthy people living in mansions deserve more tax breaks.

[Scrivener7]

14. Lots of replies seem to be positioning this as either/or. We should do all of it, of course.

And yes. That double tax sucks.

[Mad_Machine76]

15. Was that effort

sunk by our saboteurs?

[RAB910]

16. I am not sure why they didn't get a donr

[iemanja]

18. We did extremely well this election

Pretending one move would have changed historical circumstances isn't accurate.
Republicans would have claimed we had raised people's taxes. The airways would have been full of ads saying as much. It could have actually hurt us.

[RAB910]

20. I am not sure why you are arguing doing the

Right thing and helping the American people wouldn't have helped the Democrats at the polls

[iemanja]

21. Do you remember that Republicans pitched their package as a tax cut?

And some Americans saw it that way. Republicans would have argued that Democrats had raised people's taxes. It's not just about what's right. It's how people perceive something.

But it's one provision of that package, so maybe you're right on this. It mostly affects blue states, but we did lose seats in NY, Co, and CA.

[MichMan]

23. The standard deduction went way up at the same time.

For the vast number of people who don't itemize it did result in their taxes going down. Repealing the Trump tax cuts would cause all those people's taxes to go up which would be very unpopular

[DFW]

26. I think you might be right

Not allowing the deduction of state and local taxes from federal gross income is the equivalent of double taxation. Unfortunately double taxation goes on in many places. It's not just a Republican invention, although this particular version is typical of them, tailored to hit people in blue states hardest. People in states like NY and NJ, who get hard with local taxes, are surely eager to have the Trump axing of their deductions repealed. Not doing so is a mistake, in my humble opinion. If someone makes $100,000 in a costly part of New York or NJ, and they pay a total of 10%, i.e. $10,000, in local taxes, they should be taxed federally on $90,000, i.e. what they have left after paying local taxes, not on $100,000, because that means they are paying federal taxes on the $10,000 that their state of residence already took from them. That just isn't right. It mostly penalizes people who live in nice states to live in (blue states, e.g.).

At least you have Senators and Congresspeople you can write to about it. We Americans Abroad (9 million of us, after all, 6 million of voting age--about a middle ranking if we were a 51st state, except with no representation at all) have no champions at all, and some of us are in the dubious position of being double taxed (I'm about 67%, for example) with no one in DC who gives a rat's ass until it comes time to ask us for contributions. The fact that I have to earn three times gross pay for any contributions I make gets an "oh, really?" from the Democrats in Congress I know. Only CCM of Nevada has even offered to follow up. But they are ALL there with their hands outstretched for contributions at election time, you can be sure of that!

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

27. Woulda, coulda, shoulda

The what ifs are always hard to proove.