Question: When is a $7,000 tax credit a problem? Answer: When it makes a bad situation even worse. And that’s just what might happen if Congress enacts a $7,000 tax credit for people who buy foreclosed homes. As Bloomberg News columnist John M. Berry notes, the misguided tax credit may well “encourage foreclosures and drive down house values”-the very opposite of what’s needed. Proponents of the measure say they want to stabilize home prices. But Berry notes that, by making it easer to sell foreclosed homes, “banks could be more …
Yesterday House Republican leaders issued a joint statement outlining “Principles for Bipartisan Housing Legislation.” Many of the principles are sound in theory, but could also easily open the door to invasive and costly actual legislation. The Heritage Foundation responds to each of the principles below: Support Homeownership. Homeownership is central to the American dream and a key part of our free economy. We need to keep the dream of homeownership within reach of middle-class families. OK – BUT WATCH FOR EXPANSIONS OF GOVERNMENT ROLE IN HOUSING TO INCREASE UNDER THIS …
The Heritage Foundation has been raising doubts about the Senate’s efforts to “do something” on the housing crisis for weeks now. With a vote scheduled for 2:15 PM today, it seems the rest of nation is catching on to the fact that the principles in this bill will only increase foreclosure’s and depress home prices. But don’t take our word for it: From the Associated Press: “It’s touted as easing the foreclosure crisis and boosting demand for housing, but critics warn that a bill before the Senate might actually encourage …
Considering how quickly the Senate is moving on a housing bailout bill (cloture scheduled for 2:15 Tuesday), it is surprising how universally unpopular some of its provisions are. Apparently Senators believe they have to show Americans they can “do something” on housing, but the details of this bill have few defenders. Consider these reactions to the provision in the bill providing a $7,000 tax credit for those buying homes out of foreclosure: From a Washington Post editorial: …is it too much to ask that a bill called the “Foreclosure Prevention …
American businesses shed 80,000 jobs in March and 232,000 jobs in the first quarter of 2008, confirming that economy ground to a halt in the first quarter of 2008. The unemployment rate rose to 5.1% — the first time it climbed above 5% since September 2005 — although that’s still lower than the average unemployment rate for the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s. Heritage’s Rea Hederman offered his analysis on CNBC today: [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lbj1HyguMuc[/youtube] The bad news is already prompting new calls for action from Capitol Hill. “Democrats are focused on the …
In today’s Wall Street Journal, Kimberly Strassel details what exactly the labor movement is expecting from Democrats in return for their nearly $1 billion in election spending tis cycle. On the big labor wish list: a rewrite of NAFTA and an end to more trade deals new union only jobs a boost to unemployment insurance penalties for companies that hire overseas talent the outlaw of the secret ballot in union organizing elections legislation to make union officials the exclusive bargaining agent for mot police, fire, and rescue personnel the elimination …
With rumors swirling that President Bush will submit the Colombia Free Trade deal to Congress Tuesday, Presdient Alvaro Uribe sat for interview with the Wall Street Journal. When told that Barack Obama opposed the deal citing violence against unions, Uribe replied: I deplore that Sen. Obama, apparently because he wants to be president of the United States, ignores all that Colombia has achieved. We would ask him to find out about our progress and efforts to better understand the situation before he makes the type of comments he has made. …
According to the E.J. Dionnes of elite media groupthink, the current economic troubles are due solely to unfettered Wall Street greed and the federal government’s only sin was not enough command and control of the economy. Former National Economic Council director Lawrence Lindsey sets the record straight: Contrary to the claims last year of Sen. Barack Obama, it was never the financial services industry (in my experience) that lobbied for easier lending terms. Rather it was politicians who sought easier lending regulations so more constituents could borrow. Community activists (Mr. …
CQ reports that the Senate is debating “a contentious bankruptcy amendment” to the broad housing bill now under consideration. The amendment sponsored by Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) would empower federal judges to unilaterally and arbitrarily re-write mortgage contracts. The Heritage Foundation’s David John identified five reasons why this is disastrous policy for the country: This bill would add the government as a silent third party to all private contracts between a homebuyer and a lender. Until now, the government has rightly stayed out of these transactions. The bill would create …
The Wall Street Journal editorial page looks at recent liberal efforts to attack conservative economic policy as a Herbert Hoover “Let the economy sink” approach and responds: To hear [Sen. Chuck] Schumer and his fellow-traveling columnists tell it, Hoover’s great policy blunder was to do nothing, all the while insisting that everything was fine. But the problem with Hoover’s economic policy isn’t that it was passive but that it was actively destructive. In 1930, he signed the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act, setting off a wave of protectionist retaliation that undid the …
