Washington Free Beacon Ohio congressman Tim Ryan (D.), who has fashioned himself as a champion of the working class, is throwing his weight behind a proposal that undercuts that image: a massive tax break for coastal millionaires that he once called “bullshit.”
In a Nov. 18 HuffPost interview, Ryan railed against House Democrats’ plan to reinstate the State and Local Tax (SALT) deduction, calling the provision—which gives wealthy Americans in blue states a sizable tax deduction—”bullshit” to “even think about.” Less than 24 hours later, Ryan voted for the policy through President Joe Biden’s nearly $2 trillion spending bill, even as one of his Democratic colleagues refused to back the legislation due to its “$280 billion tax giveaway to millionaires.”
Ryan’s vote in favor of the SALT deduction could harm his blue-collar bonafides as he looks to replace outgoing Ohio Republican senator Rob Portman. Ryan launched his Senate bid with a promise to “fight like hell to cut workers in on the deal,” his campaign site laments an economy that isn’t “working for working people,” and he embarked on a “Workers First” political tour in April. By voting to abolish the limit on the SALT deduction that Republicans passed in 2017, however, Ryan helped advance an annual $60,000 tax cut for households making more than $1 million a year—a decision that Republicans say will come back to bite him in 2022…
