President Barrack Obama released his proposed 2012 budget yesterday. The jeers greeting this event, from all wavelengths of the political spectrum, suggest that, at long last, people have finally begun to take the measure of this pathetic little man-boy. Even so, there is at least one tax increase in the midst of the typically Obamaesque frenzy of insanely excessive “spandering” — spending in pursuit of political pandering.
Which tax? The mortgage interest tax deduction is on the chopping block at last — at least for the most prosperous Americans. This will be hugely beneficial to the rest of the economy, as CNBC points out:
If we eliminate the mortgage interest deduction, we can stop re-directing capital away from innovation. Working Americans will be free to spend, save, and invest according to their own perceptions of their needs and their sense of the future.
I expect that eliminating the government incentives for spending on housing would promote dramatic innovations, making Americans more productive and allowing the economy to grow with renewed vigor. Instead of building up a Ponzi-scheme illusion of bubble-dependent wealth, we can genuinely improve our lives by allowing wealth to flow to where individuals perceive it will be best used.
[….]
In short, let’s unleash the genius of free markets on the capital of the American people simply by refusing to load the dice in favor of housing. Isn’t time to at least give the market a chance?
This is not what we will hear from the National Association of Realtors, of course, nor from very wealthy crocodiles shedding very salty crocodile tears.
Oh, well. Here is the very best thing prosperous people can do for their country in this hour most dire:
Get you fat, pouty lips off the welfare tit!
If you want to be free, stop pointing a gun at your own head…
Scott Cowan says:
Greg- This is going to be a loud and messy conversation in the media. The NAR is going to be shouting from the mountain tops that this will be the end of life as we know it. Yet, when you take the time to look at the actual numbers of how much a household actually saves by the interest deduction the amounts just seem to matter all that much.
I for one hope that we can move past this subsidy and allow free markets determine the best course of action.
February 15, 2011 — 2:34 pm
Robert Worthington says:
Nicely put Greg. Every time I here the “O” word, I nearly get sick.
February 17, 2011 — 7:51 pm