It is time to give Tom MacArthur credit: It is difficult for one person's maniacal ambition to stand out so conspicuously in Washington, but the Republican congressman from New Jersey's 3rd District has managed to do it with a vote that devastates his district, his state, his country, and whatever is left of his credibility.

MacArthur was the only member of our congressional delegation to vote for the House version of the GOP tax plan last week, so when Governor-elect Phil Murphy called him out for his support of this venal enterprise, MacArthur's reaction was phony indignation about "taking cheap shots at me" followed by challenging Murphy to a debate.

Actually, Murphy has his own fiscal problems to contend with and does not need to weigh into the ideological freak show that is Congress.

So we have a proposal: MacArthur should instead share a stage with someone who is responsible for shaping federal tax policy, and we nominate Rep. Bill Pascrell, D-9th.

The Star-Ledger and NJ.com would gladly moderate such a debate, and we've extended invitations to both congressmen. Only Pascrell has accepted the challenge so far. With gusto.

Somehow, we don't expect to hear from Donald Trump's favorite congressman, because his cry of loons has scared away the state's entire GOP power base - including all four of his Republican colleagues and business titans such as the Chamber of Commerce and NJ Business and Industry Association, who all believe MacArthur's bill is arrant lunacy.

And we don't expect MacArthur to face the people who put him in office: He hasn't had a town hall in more than six months, and the constituents in Burlington and Ocean Counties he pledged to serve suddenly find themselves among the overwhelming majority of New Jerseyans who will get pummeled by this bill.

Forty-four percent of the taxpayers in MacArthur's district deduct their state and local taxes, and this bill kills that deduction. In fact, if you rank each of the 3,141 counties in the U.S. by their dependence on the SALT deduction, Burlington is 21st and Ocean is 26th. That's going to leave a mark.

And while MacArthur is taking deep bows for saving the property tax deduction and capping it at $10,000, here's more bad news: More than one in four New Jersey municipalities (147 of 565) have average property tax bills that exceed $10,000.

The Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy found that this tax break won't even matter to most homeowners, because they won't have enough other deductions to itemize and will instead take the enhanced standard deduction of $24,000.

That is a huge disadvantage to high-tax states such as New Jersey, which ranks second nationally in the percentage of taxpayers who itemize.

In short, if MacArthur has a secret plan to run for U.S. Senate in 2018, he is off to an inauspicious start.

Meanwhile, he will probably continue to dodge and deflect and use Murphy as his straw man, attacking him for trying to fix New Jersey's intractable budget problems by - oh, the humanity - increasing the tax rate on millionaires.

The voters aren't fooled by it. They know MacArthur has declared war on his own state - poor and rich alike - and that his only defense is Trumpian hubris. He issued a second challenge to Murphy Monday to "put talking points aside and have a real conversation about your plans to raise taxes in N.J. and my efforts for real tax reform in Washington, D.C.," noting that their "mutual constituents deserve nothing less."

He's right about that last part. MacArthur needs to face them and explain his motives for bailing out on New Jersey. If he cannot elucidate, Pascrell is eager to help him.

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