RSSHousing bill offers industry hope but at a high cost
The already passed Senate bill includes billions for tax extended tax loss carry forwards for corporations requested by auto and homebuilding companies, a $7,000 taxpayer funded bonus for buying a foreclosed home and billions for alternative energy tax credits. Also included are $11 billion for direct federal mortgage lending and the usual handouts to consultants and counselors.
The house bill is still being negotiated but at this point includes a tax credit for all home purchases requested by the National association of Realtors, favors for investors in low income housing and a plan for the long dormant Federal Housing Administration to insure $300-400 billion dollars of mortgages that private investors do not want. Isn’t this how we got into this mess – by making loan repayment guarantees that could not be kept?
There are probably more special favors that have not yet come to light. The most outrageous giveaways will not appear until the conference committee report.
I
s this worth it for the construction industry? Are you willing to pay for everyone else’s favors to get more taxpayer money to support housing purchases? Do you want to work in an industry that is supported by willing buyers using their own money or one that depends on subsidized purchases financed at the whim of the government?
Member Comments
Jim Haughey seems to have forgotten that members of the construction industry are also members of a larger community. Do they want to live in a country were 2.7 million homeowners face eviction? As that great socialist George W. Bush said in his first inaugural address, “Americans in need are not strangers, they are citizens, not problems, but priorities. And all of us are diminished when any are hopeless.”
