Quote from AAAintheBeltway:
I can understand why Obama would want to go after something like the MID. His core constituents are living in section 8 housing, college dorms or their parents basement. Why republicans would even consider it is harder for me to understand.
The MID is one of the few tax benefits available to core republican constituencies. The idea we would forfeit it to exempt dividends from tax is lunacy, since most people already don't pay taxes on dividends, as they are received in IRA's etc.
The fairness argument leaves me cold. The country has long had a policy of encouraging home ownership. It is one of the few government policies that make sense. Home ownership is statistically associated with a host of favorable outcomes.
Renters don't get the tax break. So what. They also do not have to pay property taxes, property insurance(not deductible BTW), bear the financial risks of ownership or pay a mortgage. They don;t have to worry about selling their house if they get a new job and have to move. In short, there are conveniences to renting that you forfeit as a homeowner.
Now that owning a house is not a surefire road to riches, it seems like a particularly inopportune time to be undermining the financial case for home ownership. Republicans got sucked into "reform" of real estate taxation with the 1987 tax reform act. It decimated the real state market for years and had a big influence on the S & L crisis. I can't believe they would run that risk again.
Bottom line, the republican party is toast if they actually follow through on this or allow democrats to do it.