-The Passover Haggadah

      With Passover approaching, and thoughts turning to the traditional words of the Pesach Seder, we recall how Judeo-Christian tradition commands kindness to the stranger, in memory of having been strangers, and slaves in a strange land.  Yet, these words seem to have been forgotten by US tax code and other policy makers with regard to those who seem strange to the upper income and wealthy members of American society.  Even the upper and middle classes are not immune to seeing the poor as strangers, unworthy of help.

      I never, when I was a homeowner taking that mortgage deduction, thought of it as a government tax break, government offered help, in fact, for me, a middle-class American, but Desmond points out that many of the usual tax deductions we take as home owners, or deducting business expenses…