Is Brave, Courageous Paul Ryan Getting Behind Eliminating The Mortgage Tax Deduction?

Two Wisconsin clowns who want to fundamentally change America

Back to Ryan for a moment. He was on NPR Friday vomiting out the same talking points about his budget cause that he spews every time he gets near a mike. When the interviewer asked him if one of the loopholes he wants to eliminate is the popular federal mortgage tax deduction, he nearly choked. The Republican base overwhelmingly supports that deduction. That's THE middle class tax deduction. Some might want to get rid of tax loopholes for multimillionaires but middle class homeowners-- including middle class homeowners in Waukesha, Racine, Kenosha, Rock, Milwaukee and Walworth counties-- would rather vote for a Democrat or even a socialist than have anyone touch their mortgage deduction. Ryan hemmed and hawed. He refused to go further than to admit that the right-wing think tanks he gets all his talking points from want to eliminate the deduction. He'd rather leave it... hazy.

This weekend a Gallup poll showed why Ryan doesn't want to talk about it-- or about the other middle class "loopholes" his plan would tamper with. Americans won't put up with it. He would lose an election if he runs on it. "Americans make it clear they want to keep common federal income tax deductions, regardless of whether the proposed elimination of those deductions is framed as part of a plan to lower the overall income tax rate or as a way to reduce the federal budget deficit. No more than one in three Americans favor eliminating any of the deductions in either scenario... As might be expected, those who claim each of these deductions [state & federal taxes, charitable and religious contributions, home mortgage interest] are more likely to oppose eliminating them than are those who do not claim the deduction. But even among the latter group, opposition approaches or exceeds 50%.
More than three-quarters of Americans who claim either the mortgage interest deduction or the charitable contribution deduction oppose eliminating those deductions. Opposition is somewhat lower to eliminating the state and local tax deduction among those who claim it."


77% of Americans who claim a mortgage deduction oppose eliminating them from tax deductions. 78% who make charitable and religious contributions oppose eliminating them from tax deductions. And 67% of people who deduct state and local taxes from their federal taxes oppose eliminating that deduction. And, Republicans are more likely to oppose eliminating the mortgage interest deduction than are Democrats or independents.

That means political leaders who favor getting rid of deductions as a way of reaching other fiscal goals likely would face a difficult challenge in getting the public to back that approach. The poll makes it clear that how the issue of eliminating tax deductions is framed makes little difference in how Americans respond to the idea.

The County Clerk of Waukesha County would have to manufacture an awful lot of votes for Ryan to win reelection if he comes out of the closet on exactly what his budget cause means to do about middle class tax deductions.