that s what i ve always stood for, a choice or a general. i ve never run without a primary and never endorsed by the republicans in a primary so here i am as a member of congress, believe it or not, in that situation. i think establishment looks bad seeing nothing s change and i think especially in my region of new york we just keep doing the same thing over and over and expecting things to change and it doesn t an and people are tired of the same old story and looking for something new. let s ask you about new york specifically because in the president s tax cut proposal right now, endorsed by congressional leadership it would do away with tax deductions for state taxes, local taxes and property taxes and you know these are huge deductions from the residents of your district in new york state here. could you vote for a plan that includes the elimination of these deductions? no, the problem with the so-called state and local tax duh duction is that it typically
was seen as something to help large earners or high income earners but in new york because the property taxes are so high and the most onerous tax we have, it becomes really important. we re doubling the standard deduction to bring the adjusted gross incomes higher and help more of the middle income taxpayers and because the taxes are so high upstate, especially my region, some of the highest taxes in the nation, it s a problem for me. we need to see some kind of adjustment out of the waying and means committee. we have numerous meetings with the chair about fixing that and a number of us on the new york side as a delegation not going to support that tax plan unless we see some kind of adjustment in the salt. we would like to retain it. that s the perfect world. but something to protect those middle income payers paying so much in property tax and new york, by the way, another thing that s interesting, new york actually pays out more in federal taxes than receives in federal benefits s