I don’t like the idea of the Federal Govt interfering in the home purchasing system, but they have been for many years. That is how we all have the idea that interest paid should be deductible. Can you remember when we used to be able to deduct all interest paid? This was to encourage going into debt. But the government finally stopped doing this. I believe student debt is deductible but under the new tax system it will not be.
All I can say about home mortgage deduction is that maybe the government should find another way to encourage home purchases — if that it the idea. As to purchasing an expensive home so that one has as large a mortgage as one can handle, I do not think that is a good idea. (I got burned by this once when my home price fell and I had to sell into a down market.) So you see the actions of the government to mess with a market cause lots of problems.
Now, one other thing, the places where this deduction loss hit the hardest are the high tax mostly blue states — and guess what? these are voters who say they want us all to pay more taxes. Is this political payback or karma?
“I don’t like the idea of the Federal Govt interfering...but they have been for many years... ...the actions of the government to mess with a market cause lots of problems.”
So, rather than actually reducing Federal market manipulation, you’re content with moving the levers in your team’s direction for now. Got it.
“ ... the places where this deduction loss hit the hardest are the high tax mostly blue states...”
This is patently not true—TX and FL being two glaring examples. Even if it were, this is the same BS that allows Washington to pit red vs blue so the leviathan can continue its growth unimpeded.
Agree 100 percent.
I should not have to subsidize another citizen’s college tuition, nor their mortgage, nor their medical expenses, nor their state income and property taxes, nor the number of children they create.
The entirety of the “itemization” deduction scheme is nothing but a way to get all of us trapped into accepting insane tax rates as normal, because the federal government “rewards” us with some special cut-out, customized to our personal spending or living habits.
Further, by what right does anybody claim that their child “deserves” to go to college? IMO, unless a HS graduate possesses an exceptional intellect, they have no business entering a college of university. Most colleges have been turned into collectives of morons, whose I.Q. barely squeaks above retardation. 60 years ago, our universities were filled with the only the brightest individuals ... Now the rolls are near 100 percent imbeciles, who cannot even point out the United States on a globe, let alone discover E=mc^2