The Common Good

Bob over at Commonwealth Commonsense has a wonderful post about entitled Level Playing Field.

But along with this, progressives must talk about problems Democrats think are taboo: means testing of Medicare and Social Security; a value-added tax that hits excessive consumption, for example. We also need to ask ourselves why if we oppose corporate welfare and support ending “welfare as we know it,” we encourage sprawl and debt by allowing homeowners to write off mortgage interest? At the very least, we might want to limit how much we allow homeowners to write off. In Virginia, we must find ways of rewarding homeowners who invest in living where there is mass transit.

But I’m getting down in the weeds, where frankly, I’m rarely comfortable.

I agree that we need to talk about these things. It’s hard for folks to fathom means testing of Social Security and Medicare because these are benefits to which they feel they are entitled, even though most people receive benefits far in excess of their (and their employers’) contributions. Long-term solvency of Social Security and Medicare is far too important for us to not be having these conversations.

Mortgage interest is a deduction that has been around since the first year of the permanent income tax, in 1913. I don’t expect that deduction to ever go away but it’s probably time to limit the deduction. This is not about bashing the wealthy who live in multi-million-dollar homes; rather, it is about all of us having a better future.

The common good. What a great concept.