Nancy Pelosi gets called out after proposing tax benefit that would help only wealthy Americans

Democrats routinely demonize the Republican Party as wanting to give big corporations and wealthy Americans a tax break, arguing that conservative economic plans hurt middle and lower income Americans.

Now, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) wants to give higher-earning Americans tax relief in the next coronavirus stimulus package.

In an interview with the New York Times, Pelosi suggested reversing a $10,000 cap on state and local tax deductions — known as SALT — included in the 2017 Republican tax reform bill.

"We could reverse that for 2018 and 2019 so that people could refile their taxes," Pelosi said. "They'd have more disposable income, which is the lifeblood of our economy, a consumer economy that we are."

The rollback "would provide a quick cash infusion in the form of increased tax rebates to an estimated 13 million American households," according to the Times.

However, those benefiting would be exclusively American households earning more than $100,000 per year — dare we say, the wealthiest Americans.

Democratic politicians oppose the SALT deduction limits because they often represent wealthier Americans who live in states and cities with high taxes, such as California, New York, and New Jersey.

Pelosi's idea generated bipartisan opposition..

"Restoring the SALT deduction, as Speaker Pelosi advocated, would once again force low and middle income people to subsidize wealthy individuals in high tax states and municipalities — like the Speaker's home in San Francisco, California," Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) said, The Hill reported.

Meanwhile, Seth Hanlon, a senior fellow at the liberal Center for American Progress, told the Times that Pelosi's proposal "doesn't strike me as the most effective way of targeting economic stimulus."

"There are ways you could target it to truly middle-class people," Hanlon explained. "The problem is, relatively few middle-class people claim SALT."