“We share President Trump’s call for unity within the House Republican Conference. A fair SALT deduction is a matter of fundamental fairness for the hardworking families we represent, including the many who proudly support President Trump and voted for him, in part, because he promised to restore SALT. We hope his remarks today motivate the Speaker to advance a SALT proposal that delivers meaningful relief for our middle-class constituents, as we have worked in good faith with House Leadership for more than a year. Our states are donor states, consistently subsidizing so-called fiscally responsible red states,” says a joint statement from Republican Representatives Young Kim of California, Tom Kean of New Jersey, and New Yorkers Andrew Garbarino, Nick LaLota, and Mike Lawler. Other Empire Stater, malevolent razorback Elise Stefanik, did not put her campaign logo on the statement, a curious omission from Team SALT. Must be Trump yanking her leash while dangling the fresh meat of an endorsement in next year’s gubernatorial race in front of her.

Love the “he promised to restore SALT.” That’s just going to piss the fat bastard off even more.

Still even with all this mess nobody should declare the bill – or at least some major package down the line – to be doomed. You may however want to recognize the math problem: Assume all Dems show up to vote no. Kentucky hick Thomas Massey is also a hard no. That’s 214 seats out of 431 presently filled, leaving a margin of TWO VOTES. Five are saying they’re not budging. This is even before we get to the Freedom Caucasians, several of whom are not at all happy with the present situation which may or may not end up being exacerbated by further concessions to Team SALT.

And then there’s the Senate, which is a whole other giant clusterfuck of shaky support…