Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D., Mass.) said Tuesday that rolling back the state and local tax deduction comes from Republicans' desire to punish "responsible" states that have high taxes.
Saying Warren is "the expert on the bill," host Chris Matthews argued that blue states were being "penalized" because they gave their electoral votes to Hillary Clinton, but Warren pushed back on that claim. She said Republicans are seeking to stop states from building economies that benefit citizens, which in her view requires high taxes.
"They have targeted the states that actually are responsible, the states that say, 'You know, we are going to tax ourselves a little bit more so that we can provide better education for our kids, so that we can invest more in infrastructure, so that we can put some dollars on the table for research, so that we can build a stronger future," Warren said.
Warren ascribed to Republicans an animosity against such states, arguing that their residents should be allowed to deduct their state taxes from their federal tax form or else they are being "double taxed."
"Republicans want to say, 'We want you to pay a penalty on that—we want you to be double taxed,'" she added.
Warren used her state as an example of fiscal responsibility, again saying that Republicans do not like such responsibility.
"In Massachusetts, we work hard, and we tax ourselves so we can make investments in building a future for all of our kids, and what the Republicans don't like, we show how we can make government work for all of us," Warren said.
Massachusetts does indeed have some of the highest taxes in the nation, although whether it has helped them improve their infrastructure is debatable. It scored ninth on CNBC's list of the ten states with the worst infrastructure last year, and every other state on the list was also primarily Democratic. Every state in New England made the list, and so did New York, New Jersey, Maryland, and Hawaii.
Still, Warren said she does not want to impute motives on Republicans, despite the fact that she claims to speak for them, saying they "don't like" kids having a future.
"I can't look into the motives of these guys," she said. "But what I sure can do is see what they are actually doing—they're taking states like Massachusetts that are doing a great job, and they're saying 'We're gonna raise your costs, we're gonna double tax you here, because we don't like you building a future for your kids.'"
Matthews also asked about President Donald Trump calling Warren "Pocahontas" during a ceremony for Native America code talkers in World War II.
"I don't think this is about politics," Warren said, opining that Trump used a "racial slur" and disrespected the men at the ceremony. (The White House has denied that the nickname is a racial slur.)
"Donald Trump thinks that by doing that he's gonna shut me up, but he's not," Warren said. "I'm still gonna get out there, and I'm gonna talk about this terrible tax bill, I'm gonna get out there and I'm gonna talk about the consumer agency, and why we need a consumer agency that fights for families instead of being just another big wet kiss for Wall Street."