office said he wanted to come on fox news to tell his side of the story. gosh, i wish i could get those calls. they gave john boehner the floor but he showed up with nothing. we have laid it out for him. a dozen different ways to raise the revenue from the richest americans as the president would describe them. what s the biggest proposal you put on the table since the election in terms of raising revenue from closing loopholes and deductions? there s a lot of ways to get there, but you could cap deductions at a percent of income. that would be one way to get there. you could eliminate deductions for the wealthiest. let me ask you a couple specifics. would you limit the home mortgage deduction? there are a lot of options. i m not going to debate this. really? not going to debate this? so he specifically did not say no on the home mortgage deduction. didn t do that. that s the biggest write off
but that is what it actually is. the actual definition of base broadening tax reform that is emerging in the ongoing fiscal cliff negotiation says tax reform that limits itemized deductions among high taxpayers. that is a very boring sentence. do not be bored. this is important. here is what it actually means. as former budget director poi pointed out in a bloomberg column, 90% of those itemized destructions for the rich is three categories. deductions paid for taxes paid, mostly state and local. home mortgage interest and charitable interest. look at each in turn. first, home mortgage deduction. most economists will tell you cutting the home mortgage deduction particularly for rich people is a good idea. no real reason the tax code should subsidize the purchase of more mcmansions. i m not mar particularly worried about that. second, state and local taxes paid. that s just a tax shift.
deductions paid for taxes paid, mostly state and local. home mortgage interest and charitable interest. look at each in turn. first, home mortgage deduction. most economists will tell you cutting the home mortgage deduction particularly for rich people is a good idea. no real reason the tax code should subsidize the purchase of more mcmansions. i m not mar particularly worried about that. second, state and local taxes paid. that s just a tax shift. instead of raising taxes on you by simply raising them on you, we raise them on you by making our state and local tax bill higher. it ll pound on high tax cities on states which means it ll hit the cities and states by making them less attractive places for people to live.
as officers pulled up and began to park that s when they heard the gunshot. it appears the individual took his own life. our nbc affiliate says belcher and his girlfriend had a 3-month-old old child now in family custody. what a tragedy there. we also have breaking news from florida. that is where police are interviewing the bus driver who caused a deadly crash at miami international airport. investigators say the driver slammed into a concrete overpass after missing warning signs. two people died. everyone else on board was injured. officials say the more than 30 passengers were mostly senior citizens from the local area. the bus was privately owned. no word on where that bus was heading. it is one of the most treasured deductions for taxpayers, but will the home mortgage deduction survive the fight for fiscal fitness? we ll ask a key lawmaker in just a moment. also a lawsuit to end the ban on women in combat. we ll talk to one of the four women soldiers suing uncle sam. you r
but that presents some very difficult challenges in terms of the so-called tax expenditures, because if you don t go up on the top rate, you have to go deeper into tax expenditures. that means you start affecting very popular things like home mortgage deduction, the health care deduction. that s basically what bill clinton was saying, the math doesn t work. ken conrad can do that every day and other democrats are well versed in that, and the republicans, i get the feeling they realize that argument is working. i think that s right. one of the arguments about mitt romney, the math doesn t add up is because they weren t saying what was in the math. that was a big problem for the republicans throughout the campaign. we are now past that point. we re going to have to say it. mitt romney s argument was we ll tell you once we re elected what this plan looks like. now what you re hearing is a confidence about not just rates versus deductions but rates