[paulmd]

The problem is that your loophole is my socially-significant deduction. Why wouldn’t we want to allow deductions for insulation and energy efficiency, or electric cars?

Every deduction exists because someone wants it to exist. And “eliminate all deductions” lasts until someone goes “but what about the child credit” or any other issue.

This will continue as long as Americans continue to be averse to the idea of actual cash transfers and continue to use the tax code as a backdoor system for remitting subsidies and credits.