So in order to make the elimination of the Alternative Minimum Tax “revenue-neutral,” the Bush-appointed tax commission proposes the elimination of the housing-mortgage deduction over $340,000. The result of such a phase-out: A colossal real-estate crash in New York, Florida, Illinois, California and, yes, even Texas, with a cascading effect throughout the country. This may be the dumbest major independent-commission proposal in all of human history. It would be one thing to trade the home-mortgage deduction for a serious flat tax, because that would, in the end, even everything out. All this will do is deflate real-estate values, which are the primary source of middle-class wealth in the United States. Idiocy. Can you say “dead on arrival”?