Home mortgage deduction eliminated ..........?

[Postman]

....In a new twist to the Bush Administration's "ownership society" initiative, a proposal to eliminate the home mortgage deduction has been announced by republican legislators in Congress to help fray the cost of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

....The popular home mortage deduction, which helps many working-class families achieve the dream of home ownership, has been labeled by the republican majority as a "legacy of socialism" and comes into conflict with the Bush Adminstration's ideology of an "ownership society."

....





I don't have a link. I made it up. But isn't in line with their assinine ideology?

















......

[TwilightZone]

1. Hadn't heard that. Do you have a link?

n/t

[Ian David]

11. Scroll down. He says he made it up.

[TwilightZone]

12. On edit, that is.

It wasn't there initially.

[Walt Starr]

2. Link please

otherwise it's bullshit.

[indianablue]

3. I doubt they get that one through but u never know.

I am a home owner and it is a great help.

But Bush lovers will still blame Bill Clinton if it get passed.

[Skink]

7. As long as the Apartment rent deduction is still in place....

I'm fine with that.

[Leilani]

Is this a real proposal?

Has a bill been proposed, or are they just yammering?

Think their Soc Sec proposal is unpopular? just try & take away the mortgage deduction...there'll be civil war.

[Eloriel]

4. Yes, link, please n/t

[Inland]

5. If true, another gambit to make Dems agree to raise taxes.

and then at the last minute condemn Dems as taxers. Screw them.

[scarletlib]

6. yeah, let's see them try that.

after social security this has got to be one of the most popular things congress has ever done for the american people. there will be an absolute uproar. better to repeal those tax cuts to the riich than to take away mom and pop's mortgage deductions.

edit: typo

[Warpy]

8. Actually, they tried to float that one during the Reagan years

until somebody told them what kind of a hit that banks would take when people just walked away from mortgages. Rich men in California would have lost bigtime, too, and that was the last thing Reagan wanted.

Reagan reluctantly allowed the home mortgage interest deduction to remain in his "fairer, simpler tax that you could send in on a postcard."

Congress took that as an open door to write sweetheart deductions for their pet contributors, mostly corporate. Anyone who has read a lot of the amendments to the tax code knows that these deductions are very carefully written and to benefit only carefully chosen targets.

They've wanted to get rid of the last and only tax shelter available to ordinary citizens for over two decades. They just can't figure out how to do it without crippling themselves in the process.

[SammyWinstonJack]

9. The last remaining deduction for the working class

Raygun did away with finance charges and most other deductions that helped the working class which amounted to raising taxes. No doubt they will get away with this also. Are the repugs going to target property tax deductions also? Wait, that will hurt the greed pigs won't it? The repug way....the rich get richer and the poor get poorer and the dwindling middle class pays through the nose.

[gizmo1979]

10. how much would that raise taxes on a 100000 house

about 500.00.yeah that would put me out of business.

[TwilightZone]

13. No, it doesn't really fit their ideology.

They own homes. Large homes. Many, large homes.

It's not in their best interest to get rid of the mortgage interest deduction.

[Booster]

15. I thought it wasn't in their best interest to get rid of the deduction

for your car loans and credit cards too, but they did it. That was Bush Sr's snarky way of raising taxes; eliminate deductions. Most Americans don't associate eliminating deductions as raising taxes, but I do.

[indypaul]

14. Actually if any of the the proposals for

a flat tax, national sales tax or added value tax
are accomplished there would be NO further itemized
deductions and therefor no mortgage interest deduction.
Economists maintain this deduction adds approximately
15% to the value of a home. A national sales tax would
add approximately 20% to the cost of a home. Figure it
out, it is not rocket science.
Anyone in the construction business should be the last
person on earth to favor any of those forms of taxation and
certainly oppose any effort to remove the deduction for
home mortgage interest.

[lanlady]

16. the "flat/simplified tax" that Bush supposedly now favors

would eliminate the mortgage deduction. So you're not too far off base.

[muriel_volestrangler]

17. Britain did phase out mortgage interest tax relief over a number of years

and the only time it had a noticable effect on housing prices was when they limited it to one income rather than two - giving people a few months notice to get 'grandfathered' in - so not surprisingly, loads of people rushed to get their purchases complete, which caused a bubble and crash in housing prices.

But the main process of reducing the amount of interest that was tax deductible down to zero happened over a few years, and it wasn't that controversial. Why is a mortgage allowable, when rent isn't? Why should interest on a second home (an obvious luxury) be allowed?