The deduction is the same, but since the value of the deduction to you is the taxes you save, you get progressively more money back the higher your tax bracket you're in. That is, low income people benefit almost nothing from the mortgage interest deduction.
That's absurd. The only reason a low income person would not benefit from a mortgage interest deduction (other than that they don't have a mortgage, which is not your argument above) is if they don't pay taxes. Even if they pay 15%, then it's still a dollar-for-dollar deduction on their income, saving them 15%. You basically argue that the percentages matter instead of the absolutes, and then turn around and argue the opposite.
To say the poor pay a share of people's mortgages because of progressive taxes is also absurd. If someone pays $3000 in taxes they are not "paying the mortgage" of someone who paid $50,000 in taxes instead of a pre-deduction of $55,000. And (as I *already* mentioned) you also have to take into account phaseouts *and* AMT, which both effectively negate many deductions as income goes up - ie. in effect the POINT is to offset the effect you just described, and I guarantee you it does that. If you don't understand how either of those work you should go read up on them, but claiming *I* am "financially illiterate" is a joke...
The fact that I oppose it even though I receive it is what we have been discussing; yes: fiscal conservatives frequently argue against government programs that they receive benefits under.
Aka, you are a hypocrite. Which was obvious.
You are welcome to pay more. I paid over $100k in taxes last year and significant amounts to several charities. Pretty sure I paid for MANY more benefits for others than I have ever received - and I'm ok with that because I am fortunate enough to be financially comfortable (partly made possible by the services the government provides) and feel it's a moral duty to help others in dire straits when you are able. And honestly I'm all for increasing the higher brackets and more specifically restoring the capital gains tax to its previous levels - 15% cap gains for investments that the poor can't afford to make but often comprise most of the wealthy's income makes the mortgage interest deduction look like PEANUTS.
Directed deductions and credits to encourage specific behaviors (whether it's home buying, health care, solar credits, electric cars, tuition/student loans) are nothing new, and (at least in individual income taxes) are NOT the reason for the deficit. The reason is that the top tax brackets have been paying historically low rates, so people making serious money (ie. who could give a shit about a mortgage deduction because mortgages are for middle class schlumps) are paying 15-30% (given cap gains, etc) instead of 50-70% of their million+ dollar incomes. Why do you think we had a record year for the stock market but the government is still in debt?
So yeah, I pay a lot of taxes, donate a lot more, and encourage a tax increase that will make me pay even more. I am so greedy and love taking handouts, right. What does that make you? (besides a hypocrite)
In addition, it doesn't matter for the purposes of this discussion whether my reasons (or the reasons of other fiscal conservatives) for opposing the mortgage interest deductions are valid or not. The fact that I oppose it even though I receive it is what we have been discussing
*We*? I don't know how your AC flamebait of a post qualifies as being part of the "the discussion" in the first place, but the first post I made - which was near the top of this thread - was "please give examples". The rest of the thread has more or less been one guy stating the same thing without examples, and one other person providing a couple bad examples.