While eliminating the home mortgage interest deduction could help reduce the U.S. budget deficit, the idea has its detractors.
An estimated 14 million borrowers benefit from the deduction, according to CNBC. By eliminating the deduction, the country could increase tax revenues by an estimated $120 billion.
Two guests on the news show sat on opposite sides of the issue.
Cato’s Mark Calabria explained that the deduction currently encourages homeowners to borrow more. He’d prefer to see a system that targets high-equity borrowers for the deduction.
But the National Association of Realtor’s Economist Lawrence Yun noted that the deduction has been in place for more than a century, and a change in the policy “would result in a massive, massive sudden unexpected redistribution of wealth in America.”
