Who knows? It always goes back to the Tea Party faction. Why did all those people in Jonestown drink the kool-aide? Ask Grover Norquist. :right:

@Glatt - Thank you for your clearly worded explanation!

@HM - My speakers have wonked out on me, so I can't listen to the video. Your Dad looks pretty cool though. Your folks aren't divorced by any chance? :blush:

I found a site with maps that reflect who would be hurt if various deductions would be eliminated.

Here's a map of mortgage interest rate deductions. It shows the percentage of tax returns that used this deduction in each state. It seems to correspond pretty closely to states that went to Obama. There are obviously some exceptions like Utah, but the South matches the election map pretty well.
Attachment 41923

Here's total itemized deductions by state.

Fascinating. No wonder the Republicans are pushing this.

Attachment 41925

And of course, here is the 2012 electoral map to refresh your memory.
Attachment 41926

Thank you.

I'm ready to go off the cliff. I know that I'll pay more, but I think it's important to reduce the national debt. For the last 4 years, there has been action on only one side: cuts. Now it's time for shared pain. Defense, you cost too much. FICA should be paid on all income, including capital gains income. Over $3 million per year income should be taxes at 50%. SS and Medicare should not be available to those who have income of greater than $300k per year, or maybe to those whose net worth is greater than $1 million. Retirement should be raised to 70 (it's the new 50!). Increase tariffs, penalize non-US owners/companies. I could go on ...

Sorry, happily married.

I heard another reason in favor of "stepping gently off the fiscal curb" or whatever it's being called these days.

President Obama has the highest trump hand here, and everybody knows it. No tax rate increases on filers > $250, no signature. All he has to do is wait, right? He *could* wait for a bill from the House that includes such republican blasphemy. He'd be waiting a long time though. By waiting until the new year, the republicans get to save face by saying they nevereverevernever voted for a tax increase. They get to save face. I think this has a lot of substance because there's not a lot of substance to the arithmetic found in their counteroffers.

President Obama's doing them a favor. They know that the higher marginal tax rates will be accepted by "the rich". They know it won't be the end of the world as they imagine it and talk about it. This way, they get to continue to appear stalwart, while permitting something good for the country to occur.

best bad news I've heard all day. :)

There is talk of taxing employer paid insurance plans as income. That'd be pretty brutal for the middle class, I'd think. Seems like a step toward National Health Care but taking the most painful route possible to get there.

Drat! Why does it always seem like the good ones are already taken?

hmmm... Let's see - Washington or Washington? :D

That idea has been out on the table for a few years now. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities called the employer tax exclusion “The largest single subsidy in the tax code” in a paper they put out in 2009.

I don't get it. Everyone keeps talking about a fiscal cliff. Obvously the entire problem is mental.

An overhyped alarmist soundbite is pretty much par for the course, these days.

This is where left and right use different language and think about things very differently. To those of us on the right a subsidy is when you get something not when the Feds fail to take something.

But they will lose the entire middle class vote. The Democrats want to protect the middle class from a tax increase. When the republicans allow middle income taxes to increase, the middle class WILL hold it against them.