We may go off the fiscal cliff to make it easier to get a deal. It’s reported at many places where once we go off the cliff and taxes are going back to 39.6% federal for income and dividends, massive defense cuts, etc…

It’ll be oh so easy to get a deal for the dems since now, everyone would just be voting on a TAX CUT instead. How can a republican vote AGAINST a tax cut?

In the end, we’d probably need to wait till the exact end of year for a short term compromise or just go off the cliff and then see what parts people want to preserve.

I sorta doubt the mortgage deduction will go away since this would probably cause the housing market to collapse and put the country in further contraction/recession. It’s also such a popular deduction that taking it away would probably be more political suicide.

It’s on the table because it’s a large deduction, but I don’t think it will be majorly changed.