Personally, I think they should both be eliminated. Sacrosanct tax breaks, including deductions on mortgage interest, remain on the table just weeks before the deficit commission issues recommendations on policies to pare back with the aim of balancing the budget by 2015. The tax benefits are hugely popular with the public but they have drawn the panel's focus, in part because the White House has said these and other breaks cost the government about $1 trillion a year. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB100...8643889337142.html?mod=WSJ_hp_MIDDLTopStories
ending something just because it costs the government money is rather stupid - why stop there? how much does the military cost? how much does healthcare cost? what about social security? think you have a housing problem now? eliminate the mortgage deduction and watch what happens to housing, retail sales, etc. thats an effective tax increase of massive proportions for some. watch also what happens to population migration as states with higher housing median prices lose people to states with a lower housing cost.
Me too, PROVIDED it's part of an overall tax simplification plan. To simply remove the deduction without a corresponding decrease in the tax rate is nothing but another tax increase. Even then I might be able to live with it PROVIDED it was used to permanently balance the budget AND start paying off the national debt. Of course that's not how it will be used. It will simply be squandered like most of the federal revenue.
Thats the problem, government operates like a crack addict on welfare day, the second some new source of revenue comes in they are already thinking about ways to get it back out the door and buy more votes, in most cases they already have plans for where the money is going long before the new tax is imposed, and the only option they leave off the table is reducing the deficit.
Wait... what??? That's like saying that my not robbing my local bank today has <i><b>cost</b></i> me about $10,000 in uncollected revenue. They have it all backwards. The government costs the people money, not the other way around. Besides the fact that no matter how much politicians raise or lower our tax rates, they always end up collecting a bit under 18% of the total U.S. GDP in tax revenue.
Good point. In fact, we should hold their feet to the fire and demand that every penny in new taxes goes toward the debt. We should also demand that for every penny in new taxes, there should be a penny in budget cuts.
It won't be so don't even start thinking this way. We tried tax simplification under Reagan. The only parts that remain are the tax deductions that were cut. Clinton raised the rates back higher than they were and of course, the promised spending reductions never materialized. There are deductions and loopholes that should be closed, like letting hedge fund managers count their compensation as cap gains, but in general taxpayers never win in this type of situation. The good news in all this is that the Comission's recommendations are going nowhere, and these scary headlines will give republican candidates something to talk aobut.
I noticed this quote from the OP as well, and i have mentioned the same thing many times already, this is the entire reason i will never vote for a liberal..... They view my money as government money which has not been properly dispersed. Republicans dont exactly have a prominent record to lean on in this regard either.