The money quote regarding the idiotic, stupid, irresponsible and idiotic (yes I know I already said it but it is so idiotic it needs to be said again) plan.
"Basically, you're giving money to builders that overbuilt and banks that issued bad loans," said Dean Baker, co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research. "It's giving money to the villains in this story."It's not often I agree with the likes of the CEPR but hell, even a broken clock is right twice a day.
The bipartisan** plan basically does just that. Allows homebuilders to use their current losses to offset taxes paid during the boom years. Another provision by my very own Sen. Isakson (R-GA) allows a $7K tax credit to morons, err I mean home buyers, err I mean future homedebtors, who buy a foreclosed home. I posted about this colossally bad idea before, when it was initially a $15K tax credit.
Another brilliant bipartisan** idea is to allow local governments to buy up homes. So what this means is that I as a consumer will now be competing with my city and county to buy homes. Putting aside the economic retardation of this plan, that is just plain wrong. I should never compete with a government. The government will always have an upper hand against me in any situation like that. The government has an unlimited source of income. In theory the government could always outbid me for the same house. It is fucking with the free market system at its very core. It's one thing for the government to provide subsidies available to all. That way if I compete against you, we both have access to the subsidies and it is a wash. It is another thing altogether for the government to use my tax dollars in order to compete directly against me.
The only encouraging sign about this abomination of a bill, is that nobody seems happy with it. Bush says he doesn't like it. Dodd doesn't like it. The liberal groups like ACORN and CEPR don't like it. So it will probably be months of debates, amendments, etc before anything gets passed. And the House will come up with its own brilliant version which will have to be debated. While some bailout bill will come, the more haggling there is the more watered down it will be.
It's funny. I saw an interview with Chris Dodd where he accused Bush of not being clued in. I have news for you Sen. Dodd. You have even less of a clue. This whole mess was caused by people who should not have been given a loan for an iPod being given a $500K loan for a house. No matter how you slice and dice it, it boils down to that. You can restructure their loan. You can give money to the cities to help. You can do whatever you want. At the end of the day, the deadbeat will always be a deadbeat. If he doesn't foreclose now, he will in 6 months or a year. Remember why he got a subprime loan in the first place? BECAUSE HE IS A FUCKING DEADBEAT AND DOESN'T BAY HIS BILLS ON TIME! Had he been responsible, he wouldn't have needed a subprime loan. What makes you think he will pay his bills on time all of a sudden because you write another 500 lines in the 17,000 page tax code? Talk about being clueless.
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**
- bipartisan; from the Latin PUSSY as in Republicans are pussies and will always cave in to the demands of Democrats, especially in an election year
Example : Any tax bill proposed will be championed by the media as bipartisan when 1 or 2 Republicans (usually McCain) agree to raise taxes. The Republicans with a backbones will be portrayed by the media as puppy eating, old people beating meanies
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