TMFBent (99.84)

Let the Shameful Pandering Begin

April 02, 2008 – Comments (3)

Might as well start a housing bailout hall of shame right now.First head on the chopping block:

 "Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.), delivered an impassioned defense of the measure on the Senate floor today. "Are we here to follow the agenda of the mortgage bankers' association that created this mess, or are we here . . . to help families keep a roof over their heads?" he demanded.

Unbunch your panties, Dick. Families who can't afford their mortgage payments don't deserve to stay in those houses. They'll be better off keeping a roof over their heads if they rent, and it will cost them a lot less. Look at the numbers and you'll see, Dick.

Next head on the block: Ted the Swimmer. For the crime of acting like Dick, above.

"We need to act quickly now to keep families in their homes," Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) said in a floor speech. No, Ted, you don't. Make sure people don't die of sunburn or exposure, but let them rent. Renting is fine. People who rent are not homeless, and they're no less able to pursue the American dream. Those houses people have stopped making payments on? They're not "the families'" They belong to the people who extended the credit.

From the "everyone deserves a spot on the chopping block" file.

Among the provisions on which both sides quickly agreed was a $7,000 tax credit for people who purchase foreclosed properties, Senate aides said.

Listen, I know you congressmen probably were too busy nursing hangovers to have paid attention in econ 101, and nowadays you're too busy eating $100-dollar, lobbyist-funded steak lunches, or watching NASCAR, to revisit the topic, but the solution to a bust following incentive-driven, artificially-inflated demand is not to try and introduce more artificial demand.Houses are already ridiculously privileged by tax policy. 

Why should mortgage interest be tax deductible but rent gets no special treatment? (Oooh! Oooh! Is the answer, "The Realtor and Bankers' lobby is much wealthier and more persuasive than the landlord lobby?")T

his is already wrong. Stop making it worse, because you're only going to look like idiots when your $7,000 does not work anyway. At the current rate of housing deflation in many areas, that $7K will be gone in the blink of an eye.

Moreover, the clever out there will notice that this is actually a way of slipping banks who own these forclosed homes a free wad, while trying to dress it up as help for the commoner.

Don't make the rest of us spend $10 billion on a plan that produces nothing but fodder for your re-election commercials next fall.

I'm sure we'll have plenty more of these reprehensible, fear-mongering politicians to skewer over the next week or so. Please post the lousiest pandering you can find to this thread.