Salud Ortiz Carbajal: “I thank the gentleman for yielding. The gentleman is right, Madam Speaker, COVID really devastated my community, but…”

“I thank the gentleman for yielding. The gentleman is right, Madam Speaker, COVID really devastated my community, but, more importantly, SALT also landed a devastating punch. This issue is about proud Californians who pay more than their fair share of Federal taxes. It is about equity for fellow Americans, like Californians, and other States like California. California today is still the largest State in the United States in terms of population and economic activity. For years and years, California has been a net donor State to the United States. Let me repeat. For years and years, California has paid more Federal dollars than it gets back from the Federal Government. We Californians work hard. We live in a State that generates tremendous economic activity, and we have a very high cost of living. And we pay more--we pay more than our fair share of taxes proudly. As Americans, we pay our Federal taxes proudly. So I ask why? Why is the Federal Government not being fair to States like California? So why do we randomly have a law that arbitrarily caps our State and local tax deductibility on our Federal taxes? This SALT cap hurts. It hurts my friends and neighbors. It hurts middle-class families in California. In my State, the average price of a home, a used house, middle class, is now close to $800,000. So why would we make it more difficult, more expensive for a middle- class family to buy a home?…”