Let's Get Stupid And Lose In 2008

What would you expect from a commission on tax reform headed by a Democrat from Louisiana who's the former chair of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee?

The recommendations of Bush's tax advisory commission, if enacted, would alienate Republicans, anger Dems, sack the economy, and set the stage for a Democratic president and Senate, elected on a platform of repealing the changes, especially the proposed changes to the mortgage deduction, which the NYTimes summarizes as:

Taxpayers can now deduct all the interest on mortgage loans up to $1 million. One proposal discussed today would cap the deduction at the maximum mortgage the Federal Housing Administration will insure. That level changes each year and varies depending on housing costs in each county, with a maximum loan limit now of $312,895 in communities where housing is most expensive and a national average of $244,000, according to a housing administration spokesman.

Another proposal under consideration was to change the interest deduction to a credit, meaning that taxpayers with the same size mortgage payments would get the same tax break regardless of what tax bracket they were in.

A third idea was to limit the deduction to 15 percent or 25 percent of a taxpayer's mortgage interest. The wealthiest taxpayers can now deduct 35 percent.

Here in California, home building is either the #1 or #2 industry, vying for that title yearly with retail. Think about that. All the people employed in retail, all the money made in all the stores in some years does not equal homebuilding's total.

Playing with the mortgage deduction is playing with that industry, and angering those who work in it -- from the Republicans in the headquarters to the Dems at the construction sites.

Fortunately, President Bush is not obligated to accept the recommendations of the commission. He'd better not.