OUR TWO REPUBLICAN PARTIES:

[T]he new tax law purposely punishes people in the expensive-to-live-in blue states, which is where Wall Street people live. To them, this is not just about money. It's personal. [...]

Speaking of which, decidedly middle-class people also get sucker-punched by this tax on their taxes. In Long Island's Nassau County, where a good chunk of the New York City police force resides, the average property tax alone exceeds $11,000.

This attack on blue states is the handiwork of Southern and rural politicians intent on making taxpayers in mostly Democratic regions bear more of the nation's tax burden. Keep in mind that the income tax is already a blue state tax. The federal tax code treats a $110,000 income in super-expensive San Francisco the same as a $110,000 income in highly affordable El Paso.

In 2016, New York state sent about $41 billion more in tax revenues to Washington than it got back in federal spending, the 47th-worst deal in the country. New Jersey ranked 50th. Now we can expect the imbalance to get worse.

There is a potential remedy, and it is to replace the Republican Congress with a Democratic one. The Democrats need to gain 24 seats in the midterms to take over the House. There are now 37 Republican-held seats in the high-tax blue states of California, New York, New Jersey, Illinois and Maryland. Their voters tend to be especially sensitive to taxes.

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