Sen. Pat Toomey Patrick (Pat) Joseph ToomeyAppeals court rules NSA's bulk phone data collection illegal Dunford withdraws from consideration to chair coronavirus oversight panel GOP senators push for quick, partial reopening of economy MORE (R-Pa.) said Sunday that there is "no good reason" for the Senate tax-reform legislation to include a federal tax deduction for local taxes, a deduction included in the House version of the bill.

"There's no good reason why federal taxpayers all across the country should have to subsidize, have to pay a higher federal tax rate, to subsidize those municipalities that choose to have high taxes," Toomey told radio host John Catsimatidis.

The original House bill allowed for a federal tax deduction of up to $10,000 for local property taxes. The new Senate bill, which is slated for markup next week, completely does away with the deduction.

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Toomey, a member of the Senate Finance Committee, said that the deduction would be unfair for the average federal taxpayer, given that some municipal governments charge high property taxes despite providing few services for their residents.

"It allows us to lower the total tax burden, which is more fair," Toomey said.

The Republican senator emphasized the GOP's plan to have a final version of the bill on the president's desk by Christmas, and said that Democrats will be hard-pressed to oppose the legislation when they see its proposed tax cuts for working and middle-class families.

Of the six states that claim over half of the $10,000 deduction, three have no Republican senators: California, New Jersey and New York, which could cause opposition against the GOP bill.

"When they see what we have produced at the end of the day," Toomey said, "I think it's going to be hard for all of them to vote 'no.' "