Yes, it is designed to encourage more borrowing and life long debt "slavery" to benefit banksters. Gives the false impression of economic health as you said with higher housing prices, etc.

Death and taxes are the two absolutes in life. For me the only equitable tax is the "Fair Tax" or national sales tax. Taxing production is inherently bad. Taxing consumption creates an even burden and everyone has skin in the game. But this is way too simple and the looters will lose control thus it will never happen.

Can you grow the hay and harvest it for the horses? Maybe make the horses earn their keep in some way that pays for their upkeep.

the mortgage deduction was just a gift to the banks so they could charge more for their loans. It was also a gift to the homebuilders so people would buy houses, and a gift to the cities so they could collect more property taxes from the inflated house prices. All courtesy of us taxpayers.

Unfortunately, my wife has a horse habit, and I have 7 4 legged children to feed, and the price of hay has skyrocketed in the last 4 years....to work, to work I go...

I suppose the secret is to fly under the radar- somewhat as Gus did in breaking bad. He made millions in the meth business while just appearing like a normal chicken fast food operator.

Interestingly enough, AR had the best idea. Just stop working hard. This requires having saved up enough wealth to survive, but its a good idea. Why work only to further the ends of the slave masters ? I would like to die penniless, after having had a good life paying as little tax as they can get from me.

Indeed, truth.

Mostly agree;^) All at once is wishful thinking, but it will take a lot of people doing it to make it impossible for the gov to respond in force on enough to discourage everyone. It's as big a threat as secession would be, and the state will respond just as Lincoln did without any concern for how many they must MURDER to retain power they have stolen from the people.

If politicians want to “sell” any tax proposal, start with my/your/his/her tax return from 2016, apply software, and show results of proposed tax laws. Really simple. Really scary.

Government will never willingly do that. It would be up to us all to just stop paying taxes, hopefully all at once.

Tax cuts without spending cuts just arent sustainable. They will just rearrange the pie, and increase inflation.

The fox isnt going to vote for a reduction in the population of the henhouse.

Several years ago I tried not paying the part of my tax bill that was double taxation ( on my "Social Security" income ). I was told that if I didn't pay, they would charge me a fine + interest, and take the total I owed out of my "Social Security" checks until my "debt" was paid up. So I was not able to protest this injustice!

Ultimately yes. The problem is over the last 150 years or so, they have woven taxes into every financial system and operation, even business locate for the best tax advantage over other interests like employees and resources. You also would need a 80% budget cut, in addition to finding a way to pay a 21 Trillion dollar debt.....

Exactly, that was the way I was thinking too, start now and phase it in. They would have to allow refinances to phase out over time as well, or else that would just dry up the mortgage market, and just cause huge ripples as they have to find other places to place their money.

Well that, and the few well know times when someone did refuse and they laid siege to their property. Remember the guy out in the midwest they had locked in his property for a year or so?

Tens of millions of people are not going to jump out of the frying pan into the fire by refusing to pay taxes in the face of the punishment for it. Nor would it solve anything. Being against something does not say what one is for. Statism and taxes continue because of the collectivist-statist premises that are widely accepted. They only shuffle around the tactics in accordance with the entrenched pressure group warfare.

There is nothing wrong with borrowing money to buy property, and the costs of the borrowing are still competitive, though dependent on manipulated national interest rates.

But money you spend on interest to borrow is something you want to spend your own income on. Unlike state and local taxes there is no particular reason to subtract it from income as if you didn't get the income to spend as you want. It is a deduction for income taxes based on arbitrary political motives, partly appealing to populist resentment of "interest" as if it were not a price, partly because politicians are trying to manipulate home ownership, and partly because it is entrenched as a 'popular' deduction.

There is no reason not to eliminate the mortgage deduction in favor of lower rates -- but not abruptly because people made plans based on it, and ending it only for new mortgages would create an additional unjust cost for moving, forcing people to stay where they are by penalizing them for moving.

""donations" it causes to be made, to political campaigns."
Hey!...you rhymed!!!...good job.

So the solution again is no income tax. If there is any income tax it will be used to manipulate and enslave. It transfers far too much revenue from producers to parasites and entrenches central corrupting power.
It is a looters tax as you have stated so well. ;^)

Actually, I am thinking the mortgage deductions serves so many masters it is almost a wonder toy. The banks like it as in encourages people to borrow, realtors and builders like it, they all contribute to politicians who like it, the tax professionals like it. There is a lot to like about it, as it launders a large amount through so many layers, allowing for a huge herd of looters to grab a buck every time a mortgage passes by. They can't kill it as so many people depend on it just to cut their taxes a little....it's like the Peoples PERS system....

Depends on how large is the minority of liberty minded who go on strike and how strong the effect. If I am the only one who strikes, I would agree with you, it would not be effective. It 5% or more of the population did it, the effect would be profound.

I agree, ewv.
The "popular" mortgage deduction is only an excuse to transfer production from those who work to those only steal- the bankers who used their influence (pull) to get the government protected authority to create money for their own benefit.
The income tax has the political support of the bankers, and its purpose is to secure payment to bankers of the government's debt due to profligate spending (partially to buy votes) - and to enslave the productive people.
It was not a coincidence that the federal reserve act and the income tax were both created in 1913.

The same rate on gross income versus current corruption is a false alternative.

Even Trump recognized the principle of no double taxation with "income" taxes on taxes -- before he contradicted himself and invoked it himself. His original PR list for the latest round stated no double taxes explicitly to justify getting rid of the ghoulish death tax, then the next item in the list revoked deductions for state and local taxes. The item after that insured that the "popular" mortgage deduction would not be touched.

He's so used to emotional thinking in units of micro tweets, with the attention span that goes with it, that he can't put out a list of a few items without contradicting himself.

I think you are correct, most people like to call for liberty, but if you start listing all that would go, they go...uh...ulp...maybe not.....