House Ways and Means Committee Chairman (R) Jason Smith Talks SALT
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There's no business like small business. Hiscox Small Business Insurance. Bloomberg Audio Studios. Podcasts, radio, news. Chairman, first, thanks so much for being with us.

You've said you want to deliver a budget with tax cuts to the president by Memorial Day. Do you think right now you can realistically still hit that time frame? We absolutely can deliver it to the president by July 4th. That has been a goal of mine for a long time. Of course, this is a very big bill. The president calls it the one big, beautiful bill. It will have border policy. It will have defense. It will have spending cuts. But also, it will make sure that it allows permanency of...

President Trump's expiring 2017 tax provisions, but also new provisions that he campaigned on, like no tax on tips, no tax in overtime, tax relief for seniors. But we can put that on the desk by July 4th. Is it going to be easy? Absolutely not. We have very narrow, thin margins, both in the House and the Senate, but we're going to get it done. You know, you talk about things like no tax on tips.

the Trump era tax cuts, taking those out of the budget. Are you still confident you'll be able to get everything paid for that needs to get paid for? We're going to be able to be within the numbers that was in the budget resolution. There's no question that we can do that. It's so important because if we aren't successful

Every single American on average will face a 22% tax increase. And that's the last thing they need when they look over the last four years. Inflation's gone up 21%. That's made it more difficult for them to put food on their table, clothes on their backs, gasoline in their cars. We cannot allow this tax increase on everyday Americans.

So you've discussed cuts to Medicaid. Are you confident you can get all Republicans on board or certainly enough to get this done without Democrats? Many who have said that is a red line for them. The president's been very clear he does not want to cut eligibility and

benefits to people on Medicaid, Medicare or Social Security. He's looking at possibly work requirements he's open to making sure illegals aren't receiving benefits. That's another item that he's looking at. But in regards to finding spending cuts, there's numerous ways we can find spending cuts. One example is to eliminate some bad tax policy. There's hundreds of billions of dollars within the

the Green New Deal tax scam that was passed. And that can be used to pay for all of these items, like no tax on tips, tax relief for seniors, and no tax on overtime. - Has President Trump come out and said that he would support expanding Medicaid work requirements for those up to age 64? Has he come out and said, "I will do this"?

I don't know for certain if that was a thing, but I do know that he has showed that he's open to doing some type of work requirements for able-bodied, healthy adults that's on Medicaid.

But I don't recall what you were referring to. - No, I'm just wondering in your conversations if he has said to you, yes, I'm open to absolutely supporting that. - So he has showed that he's open to efficiencies in government as long as they do not cut benefits for people that's on Medicaid, Medicare, or Social Security. - Now, could the tax bill limit the state and local deduction to those earning less than $400,000 a year?

It's whatever Congress decides to do. I think that it's very important that this tax bill is providing relief for working families, small business owners and farmers. This is the priority of House Republicans. And whenever you look at every tax provision, I think that's something to be mindful of. How high could the deduction limit go? Twenty five thousand has been suggested, but New York and California Republicans have said that isn't enough.

So balancing all the different items within the tax code is super important. We have some members who would like an unlimited SALT deduction. We have others that don't want you to even be able to deduct $1 for SALT.

I have to have all the members. I can only lose three to pass this bill. So it's really threading a needle and balancing it to find the right number. Ten thousand dollars is not satisfactory. We're going to have to increase it, but we're going to find a fair balance. Typically, the number that we'll find will probably make everyone unhappy. And so that means it's probably the right number. When you talk about three, I mean, that is a low number. How do you get everybody on board for all the different things they want for specific states?

How do you do that? One big beautiful bill is how we will do that because it's a balancing approach. Like I said, there's going to be things that you absolutely love and there's going to be some other things that you don't like nearly as much. And so the overall picture of this bill, the border security issue,

the homeland security, the spending cuts, and also the tax cuts for working families, small businesses, and farmers. You have to look at all of it together and how that delivers real results for the people who we represent.

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