US agency says tax breaks too costly, need review (GAO)

[sabra]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/23/AR2005092301340.html

US agency says tax breaks too costly, need review

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Tax breaks such as deductions for home mortgage interest and state and local taxes cost the federal government $728 billion last year and need to be reexamined, the Government Accountability Office said in a new report on Friday.

Comptroller General David Walker, who heads the agency, said the government must look at ways to rein in the growth of so-called tax expenditures if it is to avoid huge fiscal deficit problems in future years.


"We're on an imprudent, unsustainable fiscal path," Walker told a news conference. "The status quo is not an option and we're not going to grow our way out of this problem and the sooner we get started the better."

GAO launched the study to help contribute to federal tax reform debate in Washington that was expected to heat up this autumn. A Bush administration tax panel was scheduled to deliver its recommendations by September 30, but a spokeswoman said that will likely be delayed by at least a month due to Hurricane Katrina.

[Tace]

1. That'll Be Cute -- Get Everyone Into A McMansion...

then cut the mortgage deduction. Oh yeah.

[VegasWolf]

2. What about taxing the ultra-wealthy? Oh! How stupid of me, it's a

Republican administration.

[MissWaverly]

3. I don't believe this

they want to take away crumbs like the mortgage credit from the
middle class w/o taxing the rich, what is wrong with this picture.

Won't someone please realize that George was never elected president,
President Gore please report for duty at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue ASAP.

[melissinha]

4. what??????

1098 tax deductions are totally fair, that affects lots more family farms and private homes than any estate tax ever did....

Come on! Repeal income tax cuts, not tax deductions.... I suppose they're gonna take student loan interest deductions out too whiel they are at it? I swear... I am a good Democrat, I support helpful support and deductions for things that don't affect me... I am 100% on board with affirmative action and social security, and they don't affect me but FINALLY they are gonna take away something that affects me.... therefore I can conclude that FINALLY this greediness will affect and piss off many more americans..... to the GAO I say, spend all your damn time investigating the tax evasions of mega corporations and the no-bid contracts you'll be able to leave the middle and low class alone...

[stopbush]

5. Watch, they'll take away the mortgage credit on your primary

residence but allow it for your "other" homes!

This move would absolutely devastate the majority of home owners in this country.

[trotsky]

6. Unbelievable.

No, it's not the ultra-rich cowardly bastards who expatriate from the US and go live in some Caribbean nation with their money tax-free that's robbing the treasury.

No, it's not the $100million CEOs whose salaries are supplemented with tax writeoffs.

And no, it's CERTAINLY not the about-to-be-eliminated estate tax that only affects the richest 2%.

None of those are having any effect whatsoever on our nation's income.

It's that damn middle class and their piddly little interest exemption that helps families actually afford their own house!

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

7. Yo trotsky! Check your inbox! (nt)

[TexasDem]

8. And check out the Offsets they are proposing .. we are screwed

Republican Study Comittee --
RSC BUDGET OPTIONS 2005
(REVISED 9/22/2005)

Summary and Explanation of Offsets
http://johnshadegg.house.gov/rsc/RSC_Budget_Options_2005.doc

[Robeson]

9. Does everyone now understand why Lenin had the Czar lined up....

...against the wall?

[NewJeffCT]

10. well, you know how liberal those hippie accountants are

I mean, most of us actually went to (gasp) college. We're all a bunch of radical leftist tree hugger feminazis who love to tax, tax, and tax.