Zohran Mamdani is poised to bring his communist worldview to New York City as its next mayor. He is going to do so with some help from blue-state Republicans such as Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY).
Mamdani is indeed a communist, no matter how much the left-wing “fact-checkers” at PolitiFact may protest. He has talked in the past about the “end goal of seizing the means of production” and said in 2020 that New York City needs a mayor like the communist mayor of a city in India. Mamdani wants to spend $65 million on sex changes for children and wants government-run grocery stores, a terrible idea that will lose the city money, along with a collection of “free” services. His plans require a heavy tax hike.
New York City residents will have to pay for this, but a number of Republicans are fighting to help ease the pain that Mamdani’s policies will bring. That would be the “SALT Republicans,” blue-state GOP representatives who want to quadruple the state and local tax deduction from $10,000 to $40,000. This would allow wealthy New Yorkers who pay federal taxes to deduct up to $40,000 from their federal tax bill to help them with the high taxes that they have chosen to vote for and live under in New York.
This means that SALT Republicans, including New Yorkers such as Lawler, are helping New York Democrats avoid the blowback for the state’s high taxes, which residents voted for by electing those Democrats in the first place. The same will be true in New York City, where wealthy (likely Democratic) residents will get to take up to $40,000 out of what they would pay in federal taxes to put toward the tax hikes coming under Mamdani. Rich voters in New York City will get to skip out on paying a chunk of federal taxes they owe to ease the strain of a Mamdani mayorship. That is what SALT Republicans have been fighting for over the past few months.
SENATE RESTORES KEY SALT CAP WORKAROUND FOR SERVICE BUSINESSES IN GOP TAX BILL
That also means that federal taxpayers in other states will now effectively be subsidizing New York City’s communist experiment. Again, that is the “victory” that Lawler and his SALT Republicans have won.
This is and has always been the effect of the SALT deduction. It helps lighten the load for voters in Democratic states and cities who vote for tax-hungry Democrats, exempting them from a portion of federal income taxes that voters in low-tax states have to pay. Lawler and Republicans fighting tooth and nail for increases in this cap are helping Democrats like Mamdani and telling voters that the federal government will bail them out if they keep electing tax-happy, irresponsible Democrats to lead them locally.