alex brill is resident fellow at aei and he joins us right now. . >> good morning. thanks for having me on. let's talk about this. a lot of people have heard about this they know it's called salt what it really is taxpayers who are paying local or state taxes can then take a deduction on what they've paid from their federal taxes so that their overall tax bill doesn't soar too much it benefits people who are in blue states, high-paying tax states like new york, new jersey, connecticut, illinois, california how did it wind up in the tax bill to begin with -- or in our tax laws >> sure, it's been there from the beginning, quite frankly there's an argument that it relates to federalism. that the federal government shouldn't be impeding on states' abilities to tax their local residents. actually people talked about taking it out in 1986, and that reform, but it's been there from the beginning. it's there today i think it's time for it to go >> so states rights sounds like something you would normally hear conservatives defending not so in this case. yo