This was fascinating. I couldn't stop reading. I've heard in a few economic circles about the scope of largesse that is the MID. But Jesus. $71 billion a year. And pretty much mostly for rich people. It makes my head spin to think of how secure I am because I was approved for a homesteader's credit that put me into a home with an affordable mortgage. I hope that not only do I pay all of it back in taxes, but that we look into this: What low hanging fruit. Instead we're gutting $800 billion from Medicaid to pay for a tax cut for rich people. Desmond's Evicted has been recommended to me a few times. This was a great introduction.In providing millions of middle-class families stealth benefits, the American government rendered itself invisible to those families, who soon came to see their success as wholly self-made. We forgot because we were not meant to remember.
President Barack Obama’s 2017 budget proposal estimated that it would take $1 billion a year over the next 10 years to eliminate family homelessness in America — not decrease it or slice it in half, but end it. That’s less than 1 percent of what we currently spend on homeowner subsidies. And yet a bill designed to provide every child in America with a home was pronounced dead on arrival in Congress. Up to this point, bills proposing modest reforms to the mortgage-interest deduction have met the same fate.