The health reform debate continues to lurch forward, but no reliable information is available to indicate where Congress might search for the additional new revenues to pay for the reforms. The Administration continues to press its proposal to limit the value of itemized deductions for upper income taxpayers, but neither Chairman Baucus nor Chairman Rangel has embraced that approach. The attached New York Times article lays out the revenue issues facing the committees.

The Congressional Research Service (CRS), the nonpartisan arm of Congress, has released a report on the various proposals for new revenues for health care reform. CRS comments about the mortgage interest deduction are noteworthy. CRS has measured the share of various itemized deductions that upper income taxpayers utilize. For example, if the grand total of all property tax deductions in a particular year was $10 billion, and the upper income groups utilized $1 billion of that total, then upper income taxpayers would be said to use 10% of all itemized deductions for property tax. Here's the actual finding for MID:

"The $500,000 and above class accounts for about 4% of mortgage interest deductions, about 3% of property taxes deductions on homes, and about 32% of charitable contributions deductions. Thus while some concern was expressed about the effect of this provision on housing, the major issue surrounding these proposals was the potential effect on charitable contributions."

Read the New York Times article