Posted on 04/18/2012 7:21:51 PM PDT by SoConPubbie
Republicans aren’t shy about lobbing the “class warfare” charge at Democrats. But now Newt Gingrich is aiming those words at Mitt Romney over Romney’s idea to scrap or limit the mortgage-interest deduction for second homes.
Romney, the Republicans’ all-but-certain presidential nominee, told donors in Florida last weekend that he’d take away the deduction for high-income earners. His campaign later said it was just an idea, not a hard-and-fast policy. But Gingrich took it as gospel.
“Governor Romney’s proposal to limit certain tax deductions based on income, including the deduction for mortgage interest on second homes, is a surrender to the class warfare rhetoric of the Left,” said the former House Speaker during a campaign stop in Lititz, Pa.
Gingrich — who’s still officially in the GOP race — says a better idea is an optional 15% flat tax that allows Americans to keep their deductions or move to a one-page tax form.
Romney, meanwhile, doesn’t seem to be paying much — if any — attention to Gingrich. The former Massachusetts governor on Wednesday afternoon is giving what he calls a “prebuttal” to President Obama’s Democratic National Convention speech in Charlotte, N.C. Romney on Wednesday also picked up a big-name endorsement, from Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels, who said Romney will unify the party.
(Excerpt) Read more at blogs.marketwatch.com ...
Yes, of course. The deduction merely promotes housing. A general deduction, of anything. Would be more valuable than Gov’t helping to pick winners and losers. If you could use the deduction, to purchase a washer, car, porn, guns, etc. But, this only helps to inflate home values.
Thank you.
In other words to pick that the home seller is the winner and the home buyer is the loser?
Getting a deduction on a second home is ridiculous. Since shelter is a basic need I can see it justified for one home. Because if a person loses their home, it could end up being a liability to the government safety net anyway, if they have to offer public housing. But a second home is not a common need and not justifiable as a tax deduction. The government is not going to have to step in and provide a safety net for someone who loses their SECOND home.
And no I'm not pro-tax. I'm pro-lower taxes with less deductions so everyone gets to benefit and not just people who behave in the way the government mandates, dictates or subsidizes.
You go Gingrich!
Nail that RINO Romney to the wall on this!!!
Like many retirement investments, it has had interest deductibility as a tax advantage over the years.
This is why we will spend ourselves into oblivion, even here on FR people are not willing to do away with vacation home welfare. Lower the rates and eliminate all market distorting deductions.
Thank you Newt for making the conservative case. Please stay in it until Texas so I can vote for you. I hope TX is going to change to winner take all!
When I was a kid growing up in Louisiana, my parents had a “vacation home.” They called it a fishing camp, because that’s essentially what it was. My dad bought a military surplus Army barracks complete with cots and had it moved to a small lot the family owned on Little River, about 40 miles from our home. He added a cistern to catch rain water, and his friends helped him pour a slab and build a screened-in front porch onto it.
On weekends and during vacations, we would drive up there and go fishing and swimming. It was hardly the lap of luxury. There was no air conditioning, and a wood stove furnished the only heat. Heck, we didn’t even have electricity for the first couple of years we owned it. Candles and Coleman lanterns sufficed. All cooking was done on a Coleman portable stove until my parents got a new range & oven for our house and moved the old one up to the camp. We made do with ice chests until they did the same with their old refrigerator.
Not all “vacation homes” are palaces.
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