I'm stuck here at my day job without access to my actual tax data, but your suggestion of capping itemized deductions at $17,000 would screw me BIG TIME!
And, for the record, my wife and I are only solidly middle class, with AGI in the $150,000 to $175,000 range.
Here's what I remember about my itemized deductions from last year:
State Taxes - $8,000
Mortgage Interest - $14,500
Property Taxes - $2,500
Charitable Contributions - $3,000
TOTAL - $28,000
And I don't have any medical expense deductions, or anything else.
I don't live in an expensive house, and here in California our property taxes are strictly controlled, so this is actually a LOW number for itemized deductions.
So your wonderful idea will CUT my deductions from $28,000 to $17,000, leaving me paying taxes on $11,000 more in income.
At the 25% marginal rate, that will be about $2,750 more I pay per year.
This would wipe out most of the gains from the 20% rate cut, so how, exactly, is this supposed to 'stimulate the economy and create millions of new jobs'?
Is this SERIOUSLY the best your vaunted team of economic advisors can come up with?
After months of being ridiculed and taken to task for refusing to provide ANY details?
Hello?
MITT???
Don't you go wandering off mumbling 'Paul, come here, I need you to tell this guy it works because you say it does'.
What a shambles this guy, his campaign and the Republican party are.
Thanks goodness President Obama is going to win this election, and we can have 4 more years with an intelligent, thoughtful and wise adult in the White House.
Cheers.