Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-OR) on Wednesday offered a critical response to Larry Summers, the former economic adviser to President Obama who earlier in the day suggested that the mortgage interest deduction should be phased out as part of the ongoing “fiscal cliff” negotiations. The deduction allows homeowners to trim their taxes based on the amount of interest they pay on their housing loans.
DeFazio rejected such a proposal, noting that he’s rarely seen eye-to-eye with Summers.
“I don’t think I’ve ever agreed with Larry Summers on anything. He was a disaster as an adviser to Obama,” DeFazio said during an appearance on MSNBC. “That’s crazy. The one tax break most middle-income families in this country can get unlike everything that’s available to the wealthy and the special interests and everybody else is their mortgage interest deduction. I’m going to fight to keep that.”
