Impressive comparision

This will be brief because it is late. But thanks to the Incidental Economist blog I would like to share this table from the Tax Policy Center.

Check out number three at $88 billion. The entire budget of HUD in 2010 is only about $50 billion which includes something like $10 billion in mandatory programs. I'm not entirely sure how indirect things like the FHA insurance programs are counted in budget costs. (And of course this doesn't count Fannie and Freddie which are a significant costs lately.)

But my overall point holds: We spend more government money on supporting housing through the mortgage interest deduction (a regressive approach with much greater benefits at higher incomes if I've ever seen one) than we do on any kind of housing assistance for people who need help finding a place to live.

I don't think this is justifiable. If we want to support housing let's actually spend the money on people who need help rather than hiding it in the tax code and applying it regressively. Neither is #1, the exclusion of employer health insurance contributions. For scale, the state and federal spending on Medicaid is in excess of $360 billion according to KFF.

Goodnight! Don't have tax nightmare from this.