The Eureka Podcast: California’s Tax Problem
I’m back in California this week, being reminded all over again about this state’s many natural virtues and many manmade vices. Amongst the latter group is tax policy in the Golden State, which is — how do I put this tactfully — crazy. Beating-your-head-against-a-padded-wall crazy.
In this installment of the Eureka podcast from the Hoover Institution, I talk with Hoover fellows Carson Bruno and Bill Whalen about how the extreme progressivity of California’s tax code fuels its recurring budget crises, whether Californians are really the tax-loving lefties they’re made out to be in the popular consciousness, and whether meaningful tax reform in the Golden State is a real possibility. Listen in below:
A Tax ‘Reform’ For The Worse — Andrew Stuttaford
Over at the Washington Examiner, Philip Klein argues in favor of phasing out the mortgage interest tax deduction, an idea that seems to be gaining some traction with the likes of Republicans, such as House Ways and Means Chairman Rep. David Camp. It shouldn’t have.
Phasing out this deduction may, at least to market fundamentalists, rest on sound economic logic, but politically there is very little to be said for it. Before we get to why, let’s remember a few things:
