At least resistance does have one benefit. It assures Democrats they’re operating on higher moral ground than Republicans. This may explain why their commitment to resist Trump didn’t flag in 2017. They didn’t bother with offering an alternative tax bill. Their job is to resist.
The result has been a string of failures. And passage of Trump’s tax reform bill in the House and Senate last week is the worst. Every Democrat opposed it. The bill is filled with provisions Democrats hate and others long sought by Republicans. For Democrats, it was a loser across the board.
But it didn’t have to be that way. Had Democrats negotiated with Republicans, they might have saved the provision they most wanted to preserve—the full deductibility of state and local taxes. It’s a crucial break in rich, high-tax states like New York, New Jersey, and California.
