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Obama's Deficit commission may target mortgage deductions (caps on tax breaks for mortgage interest)
Hotair ^ | 06/09/2010 | Ed Morrisey

Posted on 06/09/2010 7:33:20 PM PDT by SeekAndFind

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1 posted on 06/09/2010 7:33:21 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
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To: SeekAndFind
That will cause even more defaults/foreclosures.

Talk about the gang that couldn't shoot straight.

2 posted on 06/09/2010 7:39:11 PM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum ("The only stable state is the one in which all men are equal before the law." -- Aristotle)
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To: SeekAndFind
Five years ago, a bipartisan tax reform commission created by President George W. Bush proposed ending the mortgage tax break.

Interesting item of note in this article. I've long said that the mortgage interest deduction makes no sense at all. Not only does it drive up the prices of homes, but it gives an incentive for homeowners to stay deep in debt.

3 posted on 06/09/2010 7:40:10 PM PDT by Alberta's Child ("Let the Eastern bastards freeze in the dark.")
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To: SeekAndFind
“which is in effect a redistribution of wealth to the landed. Its intent is social engineering, a task that the Right abhors in other contexts — like, say, the CRA and Fannie/Freddie virtual subsidies to the subprime market, a task which has shifted of late to FHA.”

Captain, the full-of-crap meter just pegged! The nerve of people expecting to deduct interest (which the banks have to report as income). No we need to tax it twice so we can afford to give more money to good for nothings that simply refuse to work.

4 posted on 06/09/2010 7:42:25 PM PDT by I cannot think of a name
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To: Alberta's Child

“Interesting item of note in this article. I’ve long said that the mortgage interest deduction makes no sense at all. Not only does it drive up the prices of homes, but it gives an incentive for homeowners to stay deep in debt. “

Me too, and I get a juicy deduction. I would just love to go to the standard deduction...which I could do if this deduction was gone (of course I could now, but I’m about to pay more in taxes than required).


5 posted on 06/09/2010 7:44:13 PM PDT by BobL
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To: SeekAndFind

These fools think all our problems are due to a lack of taxation.

Its the spending stupid!


6 posted on 06/09/2010 7:44:18 PM PDT by DB
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To: Alberta's Child
Interesting item of note in this article. I've long said that the mortgage interest deduction makes no sense at all. Not only does it drive up the prices of homes, but it gives an incentive for homeowners to stay deep in debt.

And it it very true!!

7 posted on 06/09/2010 7:44:51 PM PDT by org.whodat
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To: I cannot think of a name

Could you show me a bank that pays taxes, I have never seen one.


8 posted on 06/09/2010 7:46:02 PM PDT by org.whodat
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To: SeekAndFind
The Alternative Minimum Tax already does cap certain mortgage interest deductions, and well below 250K income. As the un-indexed AMT begins to harm more and more middle class taxpayers, things like this will have an incendiary effect.

No tax provision is inviolate. I can recall when: all interest, including credit card and installment interest, was deductible; when all medical expenses, without the 7.5% threshold, was deductible; when State sales taxes in addition to other state taxes, were deductible; when business expenses were all deductible without the 2% threshold.

We are already well down the slimy slope and most people don't even know it.

9 posted on 06/09/2010 7:51:01 PM PDT by hinckley buzzard
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To: org.whodat
Well first we have to find one that makes money. But several years ago, the state of Texas was trying to add some kind of tax to banking transactions, and a local bank chain (Frost) ran newspaper ads that laid out exactly how much and how many different taxes they paid. And it was substantial. Of course at that time they were very profitable.

While there are things businesses can do to avoid taxes, basically if you make profits sooner or later you are going to pay.

And I’m not fooled for a minute by any of this nonsense. This is part of a pattern of attacking private home ownership - more of that “we’re bad Americans because we have too much” crap.

10 posted on 06/09/2010 7:51:38 PM PDT by I cannot think of a name
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To: Alberta's Child
I agree. The mortgage interest deduction is a horrible idea for a host of reasons. I bought my first house, which I still live in, took out a 30-year mortgage, and paid it off in seven years because I don't like debt. The federal and state tax codes punish me because I'm debt free! It's none of the government's business if I own a house or how I finance it. But we have the deduction because we believe encouraging home ownership is good. What sort of logic is this? People are too stupid to do what is best, so we must push them. Collectively, through the democratic process, the mass of the same "idiots" (i.e., government) makes smart decisions?

That said, modifying this deduction in this economy with this unstable housing market is like playing with nitroglycerin.

11 posted on 06/09/2010 7:54:44 PM PDT by ElectronVolt
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To: hinckley buzzard

I don’t remember when all those things were tax deductible, but let me ask a dumb question: What the heck is so special about interest payments that they should ever have been tax deductible in the first place?


12 posted on 06/09/2010 7:58:10 PM PDT by Alberta's Child ("Let the Eastern bastards freeze in the dark.")
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To: musicman

ping


13 posted on 06/09/2010 7:58:34 PM PDT by musicman (Until I see the REAL Long Form Vault BC, he's just "PRES__ENT" Obama = Without "ID")
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To: Alberta's Child

“Not only does it drive up the prices of homes”

The deduction has been around for 100 years, so how exactly does it drive up the prices of homes, Professor? Yes, getting rid of it would drive down demand and therefore prices. Getting rid of it would drive prices down, but keeping it would not drive them up.


14 posted on 06/09/2010 7:58:44 PM PDT by coaltrain
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To: ElectronVolt
That said, modifying this deduction in this economy with this unstable housing market is like playing with nitroglycerin.

That's a very good point. If anything, a tax change that is this dramatic should be phased in over time.

15 posted on 06/09/2010 7:59:34 PM PDT by Alberta's Child ("Let the Eastern bastards freeze in the dark.")
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To: coaltrain

The tax deduction drives up the price of homes by making it easier for someone to afford a higher mortgage payment (and therefore a more expensive home).


16 posted on 06/09/2010 8:01:34 PM PDT by Alberta's Child ("Let the Eastern bastards freeze in the dark.")
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To: I cannot think of a name
You are wrong, I studied accounting in the early seventies and I have always been opposed to the mortgage interest deduction.

And it impossible for a bank to pay taxes just like it's impossible for a corporation to pay taxes, they collect them , from you.

17 posted on 06/09/2010 8:05:27 PM PDT by org.whodat
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To: Alberta's Child

It also favors homeowners at the expense of renters, who tend to be poorer. I’m a homeowner, but the mortgage interest rate deduction mostly helps the wealthy and real estate agents.


18 posted on 06/09/2010 8:05:48 PM PDT by Pining_4_TX
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To: Alberta's Child
The tax deduction drives up the price of homes by making it easier for someone to afford a higher mortgage payment (and therefore a more expensive home).

And the end result of that is more and more expensive homes and suddenly you have to invent funny money mortgages so people think they can afford to buy them.

19 posted on 06/09/2010 8:07:49 PM PDT by org.whodat
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To: BobL
Very sneaky wording. Did you know your home mortgage interest deduction is bad for you but a tax increase
will keep you out of debt?

Fanny and Freddie bankrupt the mortgage industry
causing our economy to tank because the guberment said it was a great idea to make homeowners out of skid row bumbs.

But my mortgage interest deduction is bad very bad because I might go into deeper debt. Tax breaks did not destroy our economy the instead the country flourishes

Zer0 and the compliant socialists are destroying our country with staggering deficits with a $19Trillion price tag by 2015 and almost $100 Trillion in unfunded liabilities through SS and medicare but my little tax deduction is a dangerous thing.

Such B.S. This is how the die hard commie works .
Constant messages of propaganda and disinformation.

20 posted on 06/09/2010 8:09:36 PM PDT by ChiMark
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