President-elect Trump and House Republicans in favor of raising the cap on state and local tax (SALT) deductions spoke at a meeting in Mar. We discussed the abolition of . Lago was arrested last weekend, U.S. Rep. Nick Larota (RN.Y.) and three other sources told The Hill.
LaLota and two sources said the conversation included a discussion of various ways Congress could raise the debt ceiling, including through reconciliation (which Republicans could also do on their own) or by regular order, and the process. requires support from the Democratic Party.
Trump did not mention his preferred strategy, one of the people said.
“We talked about different mechanisms,” Larota, who was present at Saturday’s meeting, told The Hill on Sunday. “We discussed different ways to solve the problem, reconciliation and regular order. [them]. ”
“We were talking about where to put it” on the debt ceiling, said one of the people who attended the meeting and requested anonymity to discuss the sensitive topic. “So we were looking at ideas.”
Another person familiar with the matter said some lawmakers are proposing raising the debt limit in a government funding bill that Congress must pass by the March 14 shutdown deadline or face the threat of California wildfires. It would need to be tied to disaster relief, something Golden State Democrats would dare to vote against. I needed help.
“Some people say it's going to be in the first reconciliation bill; some people are saying it's going to be in the first reconciliation bill.” [said] Some say it should be included in a second reconciliation bill, while others say it could be included in the funding bill being negotiated in March. …There was also the idea of linking that to support. [Los Angeles]fires and all sorts of things,” the source said.
Three of the sources said the discussion about the debt ceiling was a general conversation, not detailed, and was only a small part of the meeting.
But even mentioning an alternative strategy is significant, as House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) said last week that it was his “intent” to raise the debt ceiling through the reconciliation process. This highlights the fact that the debt limit portion of the settlement is one of the bill's most contentious provisions, as some conservatives have a history of opposing such efforts.
One of the sources said Trump did not consider his preferred strategy. Another source said Trump has mentioned the debt ceiling and “wants to raise it,” but doesn't want it to be used as a “political weapon.”
“The question is, what's the best way to accomplish that without being used as a political weapon?” the official said. “Obviously, there's a lot involved in all of this, so his bottom line is that he doesn't want this to be used as a political weapon against him by Democrats.”
Three people familiar with the matter said that during the conversation about the debt limit, President Trump expressed dissatisfaction with the deal that former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) struck with President Biden to raise the borrowing limit by two years in 2023. This is a sentiment that President Trump has expressed before. publicly.
“I think he's just unhappy with the dates that Kevin McCarthy chose, and it just kind of fell into his lap,” one source said.
“He didn't troll him. He was just very unhappy about the date,” another source reiterated.
The debate over the debt limit came during a meeting in which President Trump met with Republican lawmakers from New York, New Jersey and California who support lifting the cap on the SALT deduction, an issue that lawmakers have been pushing for years.
During the meeting, President Trump reiterated his desire to address the SALT deduction cap introduced under the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA), which he signed into law during his first term. Previously, taxpayers could deduct amounts paid in state taxes from their federal taxes, but that amount is now limited to $10,000, severely impacting taxpayers in states such as New York, New Jersey, and California. giving.
Three sources told The Hill that the president-elect told members at the meeting that he had no idea the SALT cap would be such an issue until the TCJA became law. He was referring to former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, two people familiar with the matter said.
“He said, 'Nobody called me,'” one source said. “He said, 'Mr. Cuomo never called me and this person never called me and said what are you doing?'”
Lawmakers who attended the meeting said they left Mar-a-Lago following President Trump's promise to work together to address the SALT tax cap.
“He completely understands that,” New York state Rep. Mike Lawler, who attended the meeting, told Fox News' “Sunday Morning Futures.” I agree.”
“There's a reason we all negotiate in good faith. That's why we went to President Trump. He understands that. And he told us, ' Look, I'm with you, come back with your number and let's get over it,” he added.
Republicans, who emphasize SALT, see the willingness to raise the cap as good news, but the debt ceiling strategy could have the biggest impact on getting Trump's legislation through Congress more quickly. It's a change.
President Trump has expressed anger at having to raise the debt ceiling in the first year of his new administration, using it as a lever for Democrats to extract concessions, as Republicans did in 2023 under McCarthy. They don't want to take advantage of the bill. . President Trump called the timeline set by the deal “one of the stupidest political decisions in years.”
President Trump made a last-minute call for Republicans to raise the debt ceiling in December's funding package, but faced pushback from Republican fiscal hawks who wanted deep spending cuts as a condition for raising the debt ceiling.
In response to these demands, Republicans in December raised the debt ceiling by $1.5 trillion and cut spending by $2.5 trillion as part of a party-line bill that would address Trump's priorities such as the border and taxes. We made a handshake agreement to do so. , energy policy, etc.
President Trump's proposed legislation would be passed by Congress using the special budget reconciliation process, which can only be used once or twice a year but avoids the threat of a Democratic filibuster. , allowing Democrats to avoid the threat of a filibuster. It's in the settlement proposal.
But getting all the Republican fiscal hawks in the small House Republican majority on board with a plan to raise the debt ceiling (cutting it enough that even members who have never voted to raise the debt ceiling will vote in favor) , which could significantly complicate the bill.
But it's unclear how Republicans could pursue alternative strategies while negating the risk that Democrats would use the debt limit as leverage.
The conflicting priorities of the various ideological factions of the House Republican Party were conveyed to President Trump in a number of meetings with various groups of lawmakers this weekend at Mar-a-Lago.
Saturday afternoon's meeting included lawmakers from blue states like New York, New Jersey and California, many of whom have made raising the salt deduction a top priority.
SALT caucus co-chairs Rep. Young Kim (R-Calif.) and Rep. Andrew Garbarino (R-Calif.) said in a statement that the meeting was “productive.”
“Our voters are burdened by the SALT cap, and President Trump has promised to address this issue for our district,” Kim and Garbarino said. “We had a productive meeting tonight, and we will continue to fight to resolve this important issue so voters can keep more of their hard-earned money.”
But conspicuously absent from the meeting of blue state lawmakers was Rep. David Valadao (R-Calif.). He is one of two House Republicans who remained in Congress after voting to impeach President Trump after the January 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. .
Members of the Freedom Caucus joined President Trump at Mar-a-Lago on Friday night. Among those in attendance was Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas), who had called for a primary challenge in December over his opposition to President Trump's push to raise the debt ceiling.
Billionaire Elon Musk, whom President Trump has named as co-director of the upcoming Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), was also in attendance at Friday night's Freedom Caucus dinner.
“We had a great evening with the House Freedom Caucus at Mar-a-Lago,” said Rep. Eli Crane (R-Ariz.). “We had dinner with President Trump and Elon Musk and discussed the path forward. We talked about it,” he said. I wrote it on social platform X Includes group photos.
And the House Republican standing committee chairs met with President Trump on Saturday night.
