TAX BILL PUZZLE | Thatcher Policies in Reverse

Thatcher's policies added homeowners and reduced the number of renters
of public housing. (Chart by The Guardian.)

Of all the puzzles posed by the tax bill now before the Congress, the impact on homeownership is the hardest to fathom. 

The bill reverses one of the major thrusts of Margaret Thatcher's administration in Britain, to use greater homeownership through right-to-buy programs to expand the ranks of the Conservative Party. 

Thatcher became leader of the Conservative Party in Britain in 1975 and became Prime Minister in 1979. She therefore led a conservative-laissez faire revolution in the 1970s that in 1980 returned the White House to the GOP by electing Ronald Reagan President.

Thatcher presided over large-scale selling off of Council Housing to the people who lived in the the rented homes. Her goal was to make them into homeowners who would care about their property... and vote Conservative in future elections.

The tax bill before the Congress removes incentives for homeownership and tilts the playing field toward renters. An astonishing reversal of a Thatcher program that has been widely viewed as brilliant.

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