Republicans claim allegiance to two conservative principles supposedly at the heart of their key legislative initiatives. One is opposition to double taxation, the core of their case to repeal the estate tax. The other is that state and local governments are more effective than the federal government, the idea behind their failed effort to repeal Obamacare.
Yet as Republicans rush this week to pass a huge tax-cut bill that chiefly benefits the affluent and corporations, their main way to pay for it is to eliminate the federal deduction for state and local income taxes. That would amount to clear-cut double taxation.