Most economists agree with Rick Santorum that the U.S. should get rid of the deduction for state and local taxes, which essentially leads residents of low-tax states to subsidize those in high-tax states. But they’d also get rid of the mortgage-interest deduction, which incentivizes people to buy bigger houses than they would otherwise.
Farai Chideya
During the last debate, race came up primarily during a policing conversation near the end of the debate — not sparked by the moderators but by a comment from Gov. Christie. In this economic-focused debate, there is plenty of room to talk about race and opportunity. There’s already been a vigorous pushback against financial regulations like Dodd-Frank tonight. What about regulations on mortgage lenders, several of whom faced tens or hundreds of millions in fines for race-based inequities in lending during the mortgage crisis? And then there’s the racial wealth gap, which has persisted throughout the years. In 2013, the median wealth of a white family was $130,102, versus $64,165 for an Asian-American family, $13,900 for a Hispanic family, and $11,184 for a black family. One way for the GOP to go for a big tent — after an election that so far has bruised chances with the Latino electorate in particular — might be to address the wealth gap head-on and propose some solutions to it.
Harry Enten
I think Nate and I are on the same page. If you look at the subjective odds we did on Monday, I wasn’t exactly high on Christie. He has problems. But if you want to give Christie a better chance of winning the primary than Romney of winning the 2012 general on the eve of the election, I think he’ll take it.
