Last week on Morning Edition, Representative Mike Lawler (R-N.Y.), one of the House Republicans pushing to restore the federal tax deduction for state and local taxes, known as the SALT deduction, said any tax bill without a fix for SALT wouldn't get his support.
On Tuesday, President Donald Trump traveled to Capitol Hill to personally rally House Republicans behind a sweeping bill meant to advance his entire legislative agenda, from tax and spending cuts to border security. Trump brushed off internal Republican divisions, saying the party is "very unified." But a key sticking point in the negotiations has been the cap on state and local tax deductions. Rep. Lawler remains one of the GOP holdouts.
On Wednesday, Lawler spoke with NPR's Steve Inskeep about his push for SALT deductions, the balancing act within the GOP over Trump's stance, and how some Republicans plan to defend cuts to Medicaid and other safety net programs.
Interview highlights
This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.
Steve Inskeep: The President doesn't sound like he's interested at all in your priority anymore. What does that mean for your vote?
Mike Lawler: Well, I think the President obviously is anxious to get a bill passed. We are in the final stages of negotiating that through the House, and then, as your report just mentioned, it goes to the Senate. So the President wants us to come to agreement. We spent the better part of yesterday afternoon and into the evening meeting with the Speaker and coming to terms on an agreement. But we are still working through some of the finer points, and I suspect today we'll be in a much stronger position.
Inskeep: Do you mean to say that you think you're going to get the SALT tax deduction, or some variant of it, or some portion of it?
Lawler: We are going to get it, as I said, and I said again yesterday, after the meeting with the President, as it currently stands, I was a no. And so we spent the better part of the day negotiating over SALT and getting parameters that we could come to an agreement on that addresses major parts and really provides the level of relief that we need.
Inskeep: I'm listening carefully here, it sounds like you're going to get part of what you want, maybe not everything you want. Is that where you're at?
Lawler: Well, that's true of anything in life, and certainly anything in government. You're not going to get everything. We made very clear we needed significant improvements on what was proposed. And I believe we will get there today.
Inskeep: I want to just ask about the President's terminology. He didn't want to do anything that would benefit "Democrat states." Do you view your state, the state of New York, as a "Democrat state" that should not get things from the President and from Congress that they need?
Lawler: I think what he's referencing is a very simple truth, which is that most of the high-tax states in the country are run by Democratic governors and state legislatures that continue to spend and tax at high levels. New York is the worst among them. New York's tax burden is the highest in the country. The governor just increased state spending by double-digit billions, up 100 billion in a decade. These are unsustainable levels, and that's what the President was referencing.
Inskeep: I just want to get one more thing in here. We heard earlier today from Greg Casar, one of your Democratic colleagues. He's from Texas, and he's talking about this budget bill, talking about the Medicaid cuts or savings, and he asserts that the cuts will affect health care for real people, including in a red state like his. He said: "What they're talking about is closing rural hospitals, closing addiction treatment centers, leaving 4 million school-aged kids without food assistance. It's horrible, but we can still stop it." When he says rural hospitals, I immediately think of one that I know about in upstate New York that's forever in danger of closing. This is a constant problem across the United States. How would you protect rural hospitals as you cut back, scale back Medicaid, which many of them depend on?
Lawler: Again, the focus with the reforms in the bill is to slow the rate of growth and make sure that those who are not eligible do not receive benefits, i.e. illegal immigrants. People who are no longer eligible should not remain on the program for up to a year, which is what the Biden administration allowed, as well as work requirements for able-bodied adults. When it comes to food assistance, it's a cost-share. It is having the states have some skin in the game, starting with, you know, a 5% share. Right now, they pay 0% share for the cost. So this is about slowing the rate of growth. Medicaid is going to expand by 24% over the 10-year window of this bill. So it is not a major cut, but in fact, slowing the rate of growth.
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