“The current plan, by raising standard deduction so high, dilutes the importance of the mortgage interest<br />deduction,” said Gerald Howard, chief executive of the National Association of Home Builders.<br />“We are working to educate as many lawmakers as we can,” said James Maloney, vice president for public<br />affairs at the American Investment Council, which represents the private equity industry.<br />Many aspects of the House tax blueprint, the most specific plan floating around the capital, are already creating consternation across a swath of sectors<br />that have learned over the years how to make do with the status quo, however cumbersome.<br />Mr. Trump, taking up a call from his predecessor, Barack Obama, campaigned to end the loophole,<br />and because Mr. Ryan’s plan is silent on the matter, it could be in jeopardy.<br />The plan has divided industries that have for years called for changes to the tax system, pitting retail<br />and energy giants — which rely heavily on imports — against America’s biggest manufacturers, which hope the proposal will make their exports cheaper around the world.<br />Private equity has for years guarded the special treatment of “carried interest,” a loophole<br />that lets billionaire fund managers pay low capital gains tax rates instead of higher income tax rates on the fees they charge clients.<br />In a letter to Gary Cohn, director of the president’s National Economic Council, lobbyists including the American Benefits Council, the U. S. Chamber of Commerce and the American Staffing Association argued<br />that the exclusion would represent a new tax on the middle class.
