we will talk to chris edwards, tax policy director at the cato institute and michael ettlinger at the center for american progress. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2011] host: good morning. thursday, september 15, 2011. but third anniversary of the lehman brothers collapse. as of the economy continue to have troubles, the president is out selling his jobs program. the house speaker is said to give a speech on jobs today. but our focus for the first half hour is on candidates and their religion. yesterday rick perry was at liberty university, founded by jerry falwell in lynchburg, virginia, and one of the topics to talk about was his faith and how it shaped his life. it reminded us of president obama in 2008 on the campaign trail giving a speech on religion and also the discussions about the mormon faith and a -- two presidential candidates mitt romney and jon huntsman. our question is how presidents's date and how it might affect your vote. our lines are open -- our question is about the president's faith and h

we will hear from chris edwards and michael ettlinger. this is one hour and tenm.org. minutes. >> host: this thursday we are ac back. our focus for the next hour and b minutes of this washington journal will be taking the major provisions of the president's jobs plan that have to do with w the revenue-raising side, the tax increases being proposed.si let me introduce you to the two guests at our table who will beo part of our discussion. on my left, michael ettlinger, a vice president for economicttli policy at the cngenteerr for american progress. chris edwards, on my right, studies director for the cato institute and he also edits an internet site called downsizinge. government not work. thanks for being here. born to dive right into it and begin with the largest revenue raiser, president obama's plan to tax itemized deductions for emiz earners. the president says that doing this will raise $400 billion. according to bloomberg news. the specifics, if we could put them on screen, the president proposes to cap itemize deductions at 28 percent ofed income. at this would

on my left, michael ettlinger is the vice-president for the center of american politics. chris edwards is from the cato institute. thank you for being here. i want to begin with what is the largest revenue raiser. president obama's plan to cap itemized deductions for high earners. the president says doing this will raise $400 billion, according to bloomberg news. the specifics of about this, the president planned to cap itemized deductions at 20% of income, and this would apply to individuals earning $200,000 or more and couples earning $250,000 or more. guest: we have a strange system of upside-down subsidies. people in the highest marginal tax bracket, 35%, when they take their mortgage interest deduction, they are getting a 35% subsidy from the government, 35% of their mortgage interest paid for by the government, and they are getting the money in the form of reduced taxes. someone in the 25% bracket, or lover bracket, gets lower levels of subsidy. no one who is designing a subsidy for home ownership outside of our weird system would ever give higher percentage subsidi