It’s been clear from the very beginning that the president has other interests to look out for than those of the people he is supposed to be representing as president. To that end, since taking office, he’s taken steps that disproportionately favor the upper income classes of the United States, including perhaps the most infamous step — his signing of a massive tax system overhaul into law late last year.
Even though the president has declined to look out for the interests of the average American after promising to do so coming into office, there are political leaders in the U.S. who are ready and willing to pick up the slack.
Among those leaders are the governors of the states of New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut, who revealed Friday in a release posted to New York Governor Andrew Cuomo’s website that the three of them would be suing the federal government over one of the controversial provisions of the tax plan he signed into law late last year.
The provision that’s attracted the scrutiny of these governors is the capping of the state and local income tax deduction. This provision stands to spike tax bills for an array of people across the country, and the Democratic governors of the three aforementioned states aren’t interested in putting up with that.
As Governor Cuomo put it:
‘New Yorkers will not stand idly by as the federal government fires an economic missile at the fiscal health of our state. The elimination of full state and local deductibility is a blatantly partisan and unlawful attack on New York that uses our hardworking families and tax dollars as a piggy bank to pay for tax cuts for corporations and other states.’
New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy commented similarly, saying:
‘Capping the State and Local Tax deduction had nothing to do with sound policy. It is a clear and politically motivated punishment of blue states — like New Jersey and our neighbors — who already pay far more to the federal government than we receive. We will not stand by and allow this to happen.’
As the New York Governor’s release about the lawsuit notes, he announced a “three-pronged effort to fight the federal tax assault on New York” in his 2018 State of the State address, with the just announced lawsuit representing the first prong of that effort.
As the release explains the other prongs of that effort:
‘The second prong of the effort is to launch a repeal-and-replace strategy, and the third prong is to explore the feasibility of a major shift in the structure of State tax policy.’
Among Cuomo’s other recent moves against the president are remarks he offered ahead of the recent Women’s March in Manhattan, at which time he hit Trump over his incessant disrespect of women.
https://youtu.be/MPRfK4E_cKc
Trump’s documented disrespect of women makes the toxicity he’s inflicting on American society more than just through his economic policies. In addition, he’s effectively trying to normalize sexist behavior.
https://youtu.be/tl5HJBnPitU
Featured Image via Dimitrios Kambouris/ Getty Images
