And, in fact, it is probably going to do a whole lot of harm.
To add to the mortgage meltdown miseries, the credit panic, the plunging home sales and the rising foreclosures, here’s a new worry: a proposed cutoff of mortgage-interest tax deductions for houses with more than 3,000 square feet.
One of Capitol Hill’s most experienced and most powerful legislators is drafting a “carbon tax” bill that would do precisely that. The chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, John D. Dingell (D-Mich.), expects to introduce comprehensive climate-change legislation when Congress returns next month.
Besides imposing hefty new federal taxes on gasoline, the forthcoming bill would, in Dingell’s words, seek to “remove the mortgage interest deduction on McMansions — homes over 3,000 square feet.” Dingell said he recognizes that such a proposal will spark much criticism, but he also said it is essential to reducing carbon emissions by 60 percent to 80 percent by 2050.
“In order to address the issue of climate change, we must address the issue of consumption,” Dingell said in talking points prepared for town-hall discussions of the legislation. “We do that by making consumption more expensive.”
And by putting a knife into the back of an already wounded housing market.
In the upcoming month, the talking points will be changed to about how this will only effect “The Rich” and how people with big families “deserve to pay their fair share” towards stopping global warming.
Hopefully somebody will find the loophole the Senators have put in there so as to protect themselves.
But will John Edwards come out for it or against it?
Found at the Say Anything Blog