WASHINGTON -- U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez on Wednesday called the Senate Republican tax bill, which congressional scorekeepers said would raise taxes on those earning less than $75,000 a year, "one giant hit job" on the Garden State.

Menendez, D-N.J., back at the Capitol this week after a federal jury failed to convict him on corruption charges, singled out the elimination of the deduction for state and local taxes in the Republican tax bill.

"I cannot and will not support a tax bill that reads like one giant hit job on New Jersey's middle class," Menendez said in a floor speech two hours before the Senate voted along party lines, 52-48, to begin debate on the Republican legislation.

A vote could come sometime on Thursday.

The measure would raise taxes on Americans earning less than $75,000 a year by 2027, while giving permanent tax cuts to millionaires and corporations, according to an analysis by the Republican-led Joint Committee on Taxation.

It also would leave 13 million additional Americans without health insurance, including 340,000 in New Jersey, by eliminating the requirement that everyone carry insurance or pay a penalty, according to analyses by the Congressional Budget Office and New Jersey Policy Perspective, a progressive research group.

The state and local tax deduction is taken most often by residents of New Jersey and other high-tax states, most of which send billions of dollars more to Washington in federal taxes than they receive in services. New Jersey has the highest property taxes in he nation.

Menendez said he would offer an amendment during the debate to restore the full deduction for state and local taxes.

"I'm sick and tired of Congress treating states like New Jersey like America's piggy bank," Menendez said. "New Jerseyans can't afford to subsidize the rest of America more than we already do and yet Republicans now want to dig even deeper into the wallets of New Jersey's middle class."

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has been pushing the legislation, drafted in secret, through the Senate without holding any public hearings and under special rules allowing it to pass by a majority vote without any Democratic input.

Kentucky, McConnell's home state, received $26.4 billion more from Washington than its residents paid in taxes in 2015, sixth largest among the 50 states, according to the State University of New York's Rockefeller Institute of Government. Meanwhile, New Jersey sent $31.1 billion more than it got back, second only to New York.

Of the 10 states whose residents most use the state and local tax deduction according to the Tax Foundation, a conservative research group, nine of them supported Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton over Trump in 2016.

"Some have speculated that this tax bill was designed to punish Americans who live in so-called blue states," Menendez said. "I wouldn't put it past an administration as cynical as this one to punish states that voted against Trump in the 2016 election."

Jonathan D. Salant may be reached at jsalant@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @JDSalant or on Facebook. Find NJ.com Politics on Facebook.