[1035rep]

"Why cut these deductions? Very simply, to raise tax revenue so the government can spend the money elsewhere, such as for health care."

Mr Obama needs us to pay for his stimulus which includes:

$1.7 million for pig odor research in Iowa

$2 million for the promotion of astronomy in Hawaii

$475,000 for a parking garage in Provo City, Utah

$300,000 to build a Montana World Trade Center 

$150,000 for a rodeo museum in South Dakota 

[justiceseeker93]

Mr. Obama needs to pay for his stimulus ...

But the bozos who wish to "raise tax revenue," allegedly so "the government can spend the money elsewhere," don't realize that when you increase a tax on an activity (which is essentially what you do when you take away or reduce an existing deduction for it), you discourage participation in the activity, which in turn reduces total economic activity and thereby reduces tax revenues.

In other words, tax increases ultimately reduce tax revenues, which is the flip side of the maxim that tax cuts ultimately increase tax revenues. It all goes under the rubric of supply side economic theory.

And the cruelest of these proposed cuts in tax deductions will be the cut proposed for the deduction for charitable contributions. Charitable giving will be discouraged at a time when charitable organizations are already suffering from reduced donations due to the recession. Yet the Left will always persist with the myth that their policies are "compassionate."