Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY) said that “lifting the cap on state and local taxes will be crucial to getting President-elect Donald Trump’s tax overhaul through the House, given the party’s narrow majority in the chamber,” Bloomberg reports.

Said Lawler: “I’ve been very clear, I will not support a tax bill that does not lift the cap on SALT.”

“Donald Trump may be interested in using steep new tariffs to pay for tax cuts next year, an idea that would force Congress to vote on his aggressive trade agenda,” Semafor reports.

“Republican lawmakers, however, are far from sold. Some are already panning the prospect.”

Said Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY): “I don’t like tariffs, Number One. I think the consumer pays them. So they’re regressive. They’re a sales tax, basically.”

Speaker Mike Johnson is alone in his desire to punt the government funding debate to the first quarter of Donald Trump’s presidency, Punchbowl News reports.

Politico: “Trump advisers and important congressional players are already discussing the contours of a bill that would use tariffs as a way to partially fund tax cuts. That would be a particularly notable victory for protectionists responding to globalization, which has lowered consumer prices but also hurt domestic manufacturing workers.”

“Congress has not raised tariffs through legislation in almost 100 years — since the infamous Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act of 1930. In the century that followed, lawmakers have delegated much of their authority to the president, and legislative action has almost always leaned toward implementing trade deals lowering duties.”

“Democrats’ dreams of imposing stiff tax increases on the rich have gone poof, and now some super-wealthy people who campaigned for Donald Trump could get a sweet tax break just for serving in his administration,” Politico reports.

“There’s an arcane provision in the tax code that allows people who join the federal government to sell stock and other assets and put off paying the capital gains tax they’d owe.”

“The Republican sweep of the presidency and Congress has transformed what could have been a struggle to merely renew Donald Trump’s tax cuts into a multi-pronged campaign to slash levies in new and bigger ways,” Bloomberg reports.

“The incoming Republican majorities in the House and Senate mean Trump can enact a tax bill without making concessions to Democrats. Republicans will only be constrained by how much deficit spending the party’s lawmakers and global financial markets can tolerate.”

“Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) is eyeing an end-of-year government funding plan centered on the goal of an omnibus spending package,” Axios reports.

“House Republicans want a short-term stopgap funding bill, setting up a clash between the two chambers.”

“Passing an omnibus bill is still contingent on leaders in the two chambers coming to an agreement on a top-line government funding number for the 2025 fiscal year. Republican control over the spending process in the next Congress will likely lead to discretionary spending cuts.”

“As Republicans prepare the party-line tax bill at the core of their 2025 agenda, the key to everything is, simply, ‘The Number,'” the Wall Street Journal reports.

“The Number is the maximum budget deficit increase that Republicans are willing to tolerate as they extend tax cuts scheduled to expire after 2025 and advance the rest of President-elect Donald Trump’s plans. To unlock the gate to the legislative fast track that lets them sidestep Democratic objections, Republicans must agree, with virtually no defections, on The Number.”

“It is a fraught conversation that is just starting, now that Republicans have won the Senate and stand close to winning enough seats for narrow control of the House. The intraparty debate will expose the tensions between deficit hawks and tax cutters, and perhaps require Trump to be a referee.”

“Nearly four years ago, the Biden administration and Congressional Democrats made a $1.9 trillion bet in the form of the American Rescue Plan. They lost, as it contributed to a surge in inflation that fueled massive voter discontent and Donald Trump’s return to the White House,” Axios reports.

“In the next recession, politicians and policymakers may be more hesitant to unleash the type of programs that drove America’s rapid recovery from the pandemic-induced crisis.”

Wall Street Journal: “Republicans and Democrats from high-tax states have been trying unsuccessfully for seven years to dislodge the cap that congressional Republicans built. Their best chance for success is about to arrive.”

“The cap, along with much of the 2017 tax law, expires at the end of 2025. This time, no matter who wins Tuesday, it will be a key piece of the tax fight. Cap opponents could have a leg up if lawmakers from New York, New Jersey and California hold a congressional balance of power in a slim majority for either party, commanding a large-enough faction to block bills that don’t address their concerns.”