Included in the Federal tax reform plan now on offer is the elimination of the deduction for State And Local Taxes (primarily income and sales taxes; property taxes would remain deductible up to a cap).  Republican Congressmen from high-SALT States object to that elimination, and they base their objection on the premise that these high-tax States actually send more of their States’ citizens’ money to DC than they get back from DC in other funds.

That seems a fair beef to the extent that it’s accurate, which raises a question in my pea brain.

What are these Congressmen proposing in the way of tax reform and spending reform to reduce the amount of their constituents’ money—and the money of all States’ citizens—that gets sent to DC?  Surely, they can think of ways to reduce such regional redistributions (they are Republicans, after all), or even eliminate them absent a national or regional emergency.

These Congressmen’s silence on that bit strongly suggests that their objections are not principled, but simply personal power and ego stroking.