Lots of people depend on being able to us the mortgage deductible and people who, sadly, get terrible illnesses ( such as cancer ) need to be able to deduct that too and neither of those groups of people are wealthy.
And just at what dollar point, would you consider someone to be "wealthy"? And you need to remember what is "wealthy" in one state, is almost POOR, in many others!
“You obviously don’t know many people.”
I tried my hand at doing taxes for other people. Did about 400 total over a couple of years, so I probably have seen more tax returns from average families than you have.
I’ve explained WHY the mortgage deductible actually doesn’t do much for very many people. And that is with the CURRENT $12,600 standard deduction. If Trump raises the standard deduction to $24,000, then almost no one in the middle class will be harmed by losing the mortgage interest deduction.
What is middle class? It depends on definitions, but Business Insider says it ranges from $72,000 - $145,000 in Maryland down to $38,000-76,000 in Mississippi. I’m in Arizona, and I chose a figure about the median for AZ - $50,000.
http://www.businessinsider.com/middle-class-in-every-us-state-2015-4
https://www.census.gov/content/dam/Census/library/publications/2014/acs/acsbr13-02.pdf
But if increasing the standard deduction to $24,000 and cutting out the mortgage interest deduction is going to harm you, then you live somewhere very expensive. I don’t know what percentage of families pay both more than 10% of their adjusted gross income in out of pocket medical bills AND pay $1500+/month in mortgage INTEREST - but it isn’t many.
If you live in Maryland...well, MOVE!
BTW - I am not a fan of the EITC. It is welfare, and should be handled as such.