Mitt Romney Plans To End The Home Mortgage Interest Deduction

For which we will have to clap loud enough to drown out the screaming:

Here’s how the plan would work, according to a well-placed Republican aide.

The Bush-era tax rates will be fully extended through 2013. By the end of April, the House Ways & Means Committee would be required to introduce tax reform legislation in accordance with the budget the House GOP adopted in 2012. That includes collapsing individual tax rates in two brackets with a top rate of 25 percent or less, slashing the corporate rate to 25 percent, repealing the Alternative Minimum Tax and expanding the taxpayer base to keep revenue at 18-19 percent of the economy.

The Ways & Means Committee, which has jurisdiction on taxes, would be required to approve that bill late in May. The following month, the Rules Committee would either send the bill to the floor or House GOP leadership would move to consider it directly. The debate would be four equally divided hours with amendments allowed.

...The GOP’s new road map contemplates the possibility that the legislation would fall to a Democratic filibuster in the Senate, but contains no contingencies, suggesting Senate Republicans might have to fast track it through the budget process to avoid a super-majority requirement.

If the reforms passed both the House and Senate, a conference committee would convene to resolve any differences, and the legislation would soon be signed by President Mitt Romney in August, under the tentative plan. The new GOP law would replace the existing tax code in January 2014.

While this road map is contingent on a hoped-for GOP sweep in November, the House passed legislation on Thursday to create this process. And if Republicans take over the Senate and the White House in January, they would be strongly positioned to follow through with its requirements.

But even assuming a sweep, there are some harsh political realities that would confront a Republican colossus standing astride Washington. Is it truly viable politically to maintain revenues at existing levels? To do so — while cutting tax rates — inevitably requires ending popular deductions for the middle class, like the home mortgage deduction. In cloistered conservative economic circles, it’s considered a no brainer. Mitt Romney has embraced eliminating popular deductions in principle.