LOL really.

I don't know where he works, but to get to a number like that he has to travel a lot obviously. I can't think of any airline/flight department that pays zero per diem/expenses of any kind that makes you travel that much (or any amount). So it isn't just 18K, its 18K above and beyond whatever per diem he gets in whatever form.

What seems like the most obvious answer is that he was pushing up against the limits of what's allowed (assuming all still technically legit) using every creative trick and interpretation imaginable. Good for him. Seriously. But part of the new law's purpose was to simplify things and roll back some of the asinine hoops people have to jump through while lowering the rates and brackets. Not to mention that many of the offsets in it could have been avoided had there been just a few percentage more votes to avoid the limits imposed on it by the reconcillation structural limitations but I digress.

I'd be in favor of a complete elimination of mortgage interest and especially all college expenses and 529 scams in exchange for another lowering of rates and brackets. But just like the flat tax in the 90's, even if you sit someone down and prove to them mathematically that they'll save more that way, they will squeal in refusal because they value their savvy deductions more than the money those deductions actually saved them.

Funny thing is its all irrelevant in the long run anyway. How much do we pay in debt interest, and what will that amount be in 10+ years regardless which party "runs" things? Assume closer to 30T, and calculate that on historicly reasonable interest rates of 5ish% and get back to us LOL.

There is absolutely no chance it will work out. Its not mathematically possible.