WASHINGTON – President Trump’s budget director Tuesday fiercely defended the elimination of state and local tax deductibility in the federal tax overhaul, saying the White House can’t be blamed that people are fleeing New York because of high taxes.

“Is it the federal government’s fault that New York tax is so high that they are driving people out of the state?” Budget Director Mick Mulvaney said in an interview with regional reporters.

Mulvaney pushed back on Gov. Cuomo’s assertion that removing the state and local tax deductions (SALT) would be such a deathblow that wealthier taxpayers would leave the state.

Mulvaney said people are already relocating from New York with the tax break in place.

“I don’t think it’s up to the federal government to save New York from its bad decisions,” he said.

The House is set to vote on a tax reform plan this week that would eliminate the ability of New Yorkers to deduct state and local income taxes on their federal tax returns and cap property tax deductions at $10,000.

The Senate plan would hit New Yorkers even harder by completely eliminating the property tax benefit, too.

Irate New Yorkers point out that New York already subsidizes the rest of the country. In 2015 alone, New York contributed $48 billion more in taxes to the federal government than it received in federal spending – the largest negative balance of any state, according to a Rockefeller Institute of Government Study.

‎”Mulvaney should know better and he does,” Cuomo said in a statement. “I’ll make it simple: Just give New York the $48 billion we send to Washington that makes us the number 1 donor state in the nation and he and the president can do whatever they want with state and local tax deductibility.” ‎

Mulvaney dismissed the idea of donor states and said fairness should be measured on the individual level. Someone from his home state of South Carolina should not be paying any more in federal tax than an identical individual in New York, he argued.

“If I’m paying more federal tax than you are, I’m subsidizing your high-tax existence” he said. “As a taxpayer, I don’t really care what my state gets. What I care about is my taxes.”

Meanwhile, at the Capitol, GOP senators are modifying their tax plan to include a repeal of Obamacare’s individual mandate which requires that most people have medical insurance.

Removing the individual mandate would generate extra funds for tax cuts since fewer people would apply for subsidized health plans.

But Mulvaney said the ObamaCare repeal is “absolutely not” necessary to earn the president’s signature.

“We want the very best tax bill that can pass,” Mulvaney said. “If adding a repeal of the individual mandate makes it easier to pass, great. If keeping it off makes it easier to pass, we’ll take that as well.”

The House is expected to vote on its tax reform package Thursday – without the ObamaCare repeal language.