Depends on the goal. They have stated a few times that their goal is to bring the deficit down to 3%-3.5% of the GDP. Which should equate to 900B-1Trillion in deficit using current GDP.
This seems like an achievable goal without making the huge cuts you suggested. If the GDP grows, revenues grows, and cut a lot of government spending it could be achievable. Still a terribly difficult task. Makes the task even harder since it has to be done before midterms assuming the republicans would lose some seats in the midterms.
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Whatās your definition of middle class when it comes to earnings? A family of 4 making less than $250k? What about upper middle class? $400k+?
I did a quick online search and found this.
āMassachusetts overtakes New Jersey as the priciest state for middle-class living. A household needs between $66,565 and $199,716 to be middle class in Massachusetts, a jump from $62,986 to $188,976 the year before. New Jersey ($66,514 to $199,562) and Maryland ($65,779 to $197,356) trail closely with the second- and third-highest ranges of middle-class income this year.ā
As someone who lives by in MA, I am not surprised by these numbers.
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https://www.nasdaq.com/articles/heres-how-much-you-need-to-earn-to-be-rich-in-every-state
Barely in the top 5% is where you get hurt with taxes with less taxation ācreativityā available.
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The things I mentioned are what most of the increased government spending is on. You canāt substantially address spending without touching those, hence why musk is unable to find the so called trillions of savings. Itās not exactly difficult to see where we need to cut, itās just politically untenable.
There is no world where ā we cut a lot of government spending ā without those categories being the primary sources of the cuts
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If they can get the SALT deduction limit to $30k that will help a lot of people.
Depends on if they owned their home pre or post Covid I guess. 200k in nj or mass with 2 kids is likely struggling without a 3% mortgage and pre Covid pricing. I think these days in expensive areas middle class family of 4 can stretch well above 300k. Most are w2 workers who pay close to 25% in just federal tax too.
Iām not for taxes on labor but if we must have it Iād rather have a consumption tax. But that would never happenā¦the system will always be rigged and if they return to high tax rates more people will just find ways around them. High income people have that luxury. Especially with many now working remotely or for themselves now.
Lots of good points here
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Eh. NJ is bad but itās also 3 states in one lol. Above rt 195 and east of 206 means you need like 500k to live lol. South of Rt 295 to Rt 322 means 200k.
South of 322 without Cape May means 150k is still a lot of money lol. Interest rates at 7% are painful though.
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I was talking the part of nj thatās expensive. My parents had a new home built on 12 acres and prob made 65-70k at the time (1997). $3000 per acres and the house was around $100k. Ct can be cheap and so can mass. Anywhere actually can beā¦even cali. But itās getting worse and worse and wages def arenāt keeping up. 500k house is $60k a year currently morthaged. So even at 200k dual income family your one job loss from not being able to pay for it.
What does owning a home have to do with my question? I am fine with $200k in income as the upper limit for a middle class family of 4.
Even pre-Covid, homes in certain parts of the country were unaffordable. During Covid, there was an exodus of workers from metropolitan areas to more affordable cities (in the south and Midwest).
Unless you are referring to the rural part of MA, I donāt know of any town thatās āaffordableā.
What would be the cost to tax payers? How are we going to pay for it?
Donāt really have to pay for anything , need to limit insane policies like prop 9 in California.
Right now there is a massive class of mainly older folks who will basically do anything to prop up RE values , limit new starts with burdensome regulations , oppose new building of multi-fam housing with bs like itāll hurt the vibes of the area ( see every Silicon Valley VC) , support dumb policy like prop 9 which suppresses property taxes and artificially contributes to scarcity.
Need to craft policies that move us out of the whole RE investment narrative which generally isnāt great for average to poor people. Would also get rid of massive massive tax advantages for RE ownership and investment.
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For many of them, their future in congress likely depends on raising the SALT cap, though unclear if they even have a shot to stay afterwards, given the way things are going.
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Sorry meant prop 13 not 9, brain fart and stupid slow mode
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Considering housing is the largest bill anyone pays on a monthly basis itās has everything to do with your middle class lifestyle. The people making 200k with a $2500 mortgage are much more comfortable then those coming up the ladder now that just bought or donāt own yet.
People work remotely in many fields so it is possible to live well anywhere in that situation. Every state has affordable homes but they just wonāt be an easy commute to the city.
As for incentivizing the housing industry, lowering inflation would be a start. Allowing more wood to be produced domestically. We have plenty of trees. Regardless as tech increases pricing should come down in theory. Also people are more willing to live in smaller homes as theyāre having less children. The upper end market should come down and already is as many donāt want old unremodeled 5-6 br homes that will be a money pit. The main issue is supply and demand. We should be going into a period of more supply as the boomers age, but not if we allow unchecked immigration.
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Not the case in 2025 when inflation is still high and prices of goods have been going up. Working remotely might save you some gas money and commute time, but āliving well anywhereā is subjective.
Pre-Covid, I used to live near Boston and commute into the city for work. Nearly 6 years ago, my wife and I decided to move my family away from the city in search for a better school system for my kids and a better quality of life. Weāve been living in the country since, and I can tell you that home prices have skyrocketed in my small town.
Supply and demand is an issue. New homes that used to cost $350k-$400k in my town 5 years ago are now going for $700k+. Even with a dual income household, thatās not chump change given current mortgage rates and such.
So thatās your solution?
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Wood is not the primary factor in why housing is expensive. Labor costs and zoning driving up the value of developable land are. Single family zoning should not be allowed, especially near transit stops.
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The solution to fix the housing shortage, first and foremost, is to re-zone under-utilized office space in central business districts to be used as residential. Take midtown manhattan, for example. Thereās a ton of class B and C office that is just standing around vacant. Highest and best use for those properties would be a condo conversion, but thereās too much inertia and red tape around getting that done. It behooves landlords to prevent extra supply from coming to market so they can keep rents high. Very similar to what happened when cuomo signed the rent stabilization bill in 2019 - landlords purposely kept rent stabilized units mothballed and off-market because they knew they could never raise their legal rents again.
Next thing to do would be to repurpose the crap-ton of dead and dying retail, especially around highways (i.e. strip malls, shopping centers), into apartments. This is already happening in my hometown in central NJ, but it needs to happen at a much faster rate.
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Yes weāve discussed zoning restriction in the real estate thread before. Theyāre a disaster and def make things impossible to expand supply. Commercial areas need to be rezoned for residential imo so more units can be built.
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Iāve thought this since the beginning of Covid. The issue is that in a lot of areas it is cost prohibitive to convert old office to housing because of the plumbing and electrical requirements in housing being exponentially more cumbersome than office. In our last offices there was one central restroom area surrounded by office for 50 people and the building is designed this way from floors 2-10. It is not designed in a manner that is conducive to housing, even though that same building is now only 20% occupied.
There will be a lot of office foreclosures coming and if someone could figure out how to convert at a reasonable cost it would be extremely beneficial.
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This is annoying. I just got hit with a tariff on my wine from Italy. I bought it on my honeymoon in Italy on March 25th before the tariffs were even a thing. But since it was a small vineyard, the shipping wasnāt quick enough.
Gotta love paying more in taxes that Iāll never see a dime of benefit from. I really hope Iām wrong and that thereās some grand plan no one is sharing with all of us. But I donāt see how this helps the economy in anything outside of a very idealistic and optimistic scenario.
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This might work in big cities/metropolitan areas, but what about smaller towns where there is no such office space?
How is this going to help close the home-ownership affordability gap? Home prices are dictated by market conditions. I am all for a free market economy, but there needs to be more incentives for new homeowners.
I remember taking advantage of FHA financing (only put down 3.5%) when I bought my first home nearly 15 years ago.