Addressing the question: should we dump the mortgage interest deduction?

Do we want to use the tax code to subsidize home ownership? And, if we do, is the mortgage interest deduction the best way to do it? A new paper … asks these provocative questions, and comes up with some surprising answers. To even ask seems almost un-American—almost like suggesting we replace barbecue at the Memorial Day picnic with, oh, tofu. But a close look suggests there is much less to the hallowed deduction than meets the eye. Thus, we’d miss it much less than we think.