21.   Further, by prepaying the mortgage, you are eating away at the amount of the interest deduction you can take on your tax returns.

22.   Former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Jack Kemp this week proposed a single, unspecified tax rate that would preserve the home mortgage interest deduction.

23.   Given the pressure from homeowners, builders and real estate agents, how likely is Congress to take on a cut in mortgage interest deductions?

24.   Gramm and others argue that the mortgage interest deduction is too popular with middle-class families to discard.

25.   He would eliminate nearly all deductions, credits, exemptions and adjustments except the mortgage interest deduction and the exclusion from taxation of employer-provided health insurance.

26.   Home buyers count on the mortgage interest deduction in figuring out what they can afford to pay for a house.

27.   Homeowners paying off their mortgages would not take kindly to losing their interest deduction and possibly seeing the value of their houses fall, too.

28.   If mortgage interest deductions are scuttled in the name of simplification, will house values plummet?

29.   If the interest deduction did not exist, more people might move to apartments to lower their living expenses.

30.   If you did not have the mortgage interest deduction, would you still benefit by itemizing deductions?