Brit Hume, deceptive hack
 

canadianist fuck

Dean
 

Not to detract from your point, which is a good one, but the comment would also be more objectionable if Blacks were not disproportionately employed in lower paid jobs.

Brit Hume, deceptive hack
 

Not this year, at least.

Brit Hume, deceptive hack
 

Why can't people who can afford to put away more than $15k a year just invest/save it? Why, bilmore, why?

Dean
 

I'm sure this is whiffing, but this is going a bit overboard. It's not like Hank said it.

Brit Hume, deceptive hack
 

As you get older, you realize that you can't afford to NOT put away $15k per year, even if your income would have made that a laughable prospect earlier in life.

Plus, we're speaking of trying to encourage socailly desirable behavior. So, yeah, people probably CAN do it - 401k's just make it more likely that they WILL do it.

Why can't we expect people to buy houses without a mortgage deduction?

Brit Hume, deceptive hack
 

If you make $50k a year, $15k, let alone $20k (if you are over 50) is really not doable. I assume given your groundedness and disdain for effete liberal snobs that you know people who make a piddly $50k a year. What is the median income in the US, anyway?

I think we can expect people to buy houses without the mortgage deduction.

Brit Hume, deceptive hack
 

And yet, we continue to allow it.

Why, fringey, why?

Brit Hume, deceptive hack
 

Though not as many, or as expensive.

Brit Hume, deceptive hack
 

I haven't watched this all season- what is going on? Is Bartlett still in office or did it jump forward 4 years? Last night Josh's old girlfreiend is working with all the Candidates because the Dems have to start winning- they own the WH- help me?

Brit Hume, deceptive hack
 

It's politically unpalatable to change it. Because many many people at the median income level actually use this, whereas very very few would not use the last $5k of a $20/25k 401(k) limit. People like you and me would use the last $5k. Just put your money in the bank and stop asking for special treatment, rich guy. If you want tax benefits, take out a second mortgage.

ETA also, the mortgage industry/realty industry/homebuilding industry makes a shitload of money off that tax deduction. It won't just be individuals protesting getting rid of the deduction.

Brit Hume, deceptive hack
 

I'm OK with that. But I might just be bitter. See above as to actual use by large numbers of people.

Brit Hume, deceptive hack
 

Bartlett's winding down his term, apparently with the aid of a stripped-down staff because half of them have joined competing campaigns for the Dem nomination. They occasionally have an episode featuring Bartlett, but the Prez has a much smaller role in the series these days.

Agree that the girlfriend's comment that the "Dems have to start winning" isn't entirely consistent with the show's internal history, but I imagine that it's one of those scraps of "reality" that is intended to draw in you conservative types as viewers.

(It's also one of those small hints that tells me I should search the board to see how the GOP did in the recent elections. I hear you guys did pretty well.)

Brit Hume, deceptive hack
 

you're also ignoring the principle of taxing consumption rather than income.

Brit Hume, deceptive hack
 

how--because people would pay cash otherwise? Or because people take out larger mortgages?

The real problem with eliminating it is that it would depress home values, and with 67% of americans owning homes, that's a pretty good constituency.

The only way to get rid of it without massive displacement is to phase it out--e.g., drop 5% of the deduction each year for 20 years (so only 95% of interest is deductible this year, 90% the following year, and so on)