Senate voted for cloture....Home Foreclosure Bill

[slipslidingaway]

http://www.mercurynews.com/opinion/ci_8848608

Editorial: Foreclosure plan helps everyone but homeowners

"Congress is on the hot seat to ease the home foreclosure crisis, but a bipartisan bill before the U.S. Senate this week doesn't come close to doing the job.

The legislation provides little real help to the growing ranks of homeowners facing foreclosure. But it helps just about everybody else, giving generous tax breaks to home builders, lenders and buyers of foreclosed properties...

Meanwhile, a buyer of a foreclosed home would get a $7,000 tax credit...


So we're left with a bill larded with special considerations. The chief beneficiaries would be home builders and other money-losing companies that would get retroactive tax breaks on previous years' profits - a gift worth at least $6 billion..."


Senate foreclosure bill a victory for lenders, builders
Builders and lenders would get $25 billion, borrowers $3 billion

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/business/5671677.html

"A measure billed as boosting the slumping housing market showers money-losing businesses with $25 billion in tax relief in the next few years but offers just $3 billion to homeowners..."

[smoogatz]

1. Congress, Inc.

That's what we get when we allow legalized corporate bribery to be the driving force in our electoral system.

[slipslidingaway]

4. Those that have the money can buy real estate at lower prices

and get a tax credit and homebuilders will get additional write offs against profits.

"That's what we get when we allow legalized corporate bribery to be the driving force in our electoral system."

:thumbsup:

[alstephenson]

2. Pathetic excuse for a "foreclosure" bill.

Come on, Senators, wake up and smell the coffee.

[slipslidingaway]

5. You would think we could do better :) n/t

[jmowreader]

20. We could have done better by doing NOTHING!

Instead, we get a bill that helps...

* the people who built the wrong houses

* the people who made loans for the houses based on, in many cases, information they pressed the applicant to falsify

* the companies who "derivatized" these bad loans into bulk securities so it would be hard to tell just how stupid of an investment they were

* the people who were gullible enough to buy these derivatives

* and the sharks who snap up these properties after the original purchaser got run off by the bank.

And I note that nowhere in this bill is any indication that the abuses won't be encouraged to continue. What is BartCop's First Law? "If someone makes a mistake that makes them money, expect them to make the same mistake over and over again."

[slipslidingaway]

23. Nice summary, trying to read through the bill is challenging, but

I fear you are correct in that the products which helped to produce the mess will not be mentioned.

:(

[nashville_brook]

3. as if we needed any more evidence that DC could give a flying turd about real americans.

$7000 tax credit. jeeeeeesuus.

[slipslidingaway]

6. You have to wonder who is left to buy? n/t

[JuniperLea]

10. My thoughts exactly!

Here, have a great deal on top of a great deal! It's the American way!

Ugh...

[taught_me_patience]

18. yeah it's total bullshit

rewarding irresponsible individuals. Where is my 7k tax credit for not foreclosing? Oh wait... I'm just one of those dirty, low-life renters. I don't even deserve any tax writeoffs. Where is my cut of the pie?

[TechBear_Seattle]

7. You expected Congress to help someone OTHER than their chief sponsors?

(Insert snort of amused derision here.)

It matters not which party a Congresscritter allegedly represents: they will ALWAYS side with major campaign contributors. ALWAYS.

[slipslidingaway]

9. Silly me and I certainly do not remember any significant debate

while this bubble was being inflated.

[elehhhhna]

8. They killed income-averagibng for the general public, but are reinstating it for builders? I call

BS! I s'pose Blackwater, HAL & KBR can expect a retro tax break when they have a bad year (soon, I hope) and their war profiteering slows down, right?

[slipslidingaway]

13. I guess the rationale is that we need to keep people employed

via the homebuilders and maybe all the people employed by the Iraq invasion and occupation as well.

:shrug:

[slipslidingaway]

11. Predatory Mortgage Lending Practices Reduction Act...2002

See link for related bills which were introduced.

Feb 27, 2002

To protect home buyers from predatory lending practices.

http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=h107-3807

This bill never became law. This bill was proposed in a previous session of Congress. Sessions of Congress last two years, and at the end of each session all proposed bills and resolutions that haven't passed are cleared from the books.
Last Action: Apr 15, 2002: Referred to the Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Consumer Credit.
Show All Related Votes
Other Titles: -- Consumer Fairness Act

[Zodiak]

12. Big surprise

The Senate is the den of the DLC....half of our Senators on the Democratic side are members of the DLC, and they only listen to the corporations. They have proven this to us time and time again for over 15 years. Yet many Democrats have no idea who they are voting for when they pull the lever for the Democrats. Our sense of brand loyalty coupled with our inability or unwillingness to do our homework is exactly why our two party system has been hijacked by the corporations.

They will shit on your head and demand your votes until we expose and end this charade.

This homeowners crisis is just example #4458478 why progressives need to fight the DLC with everthing they have.

[slipslidingaway]

14. Agree and why I believe it is dangerous to fall into the trap of

every Republican being bad and every Democrat being good.


"...Our sense of brand loyalty coupled with our inability or unwillingness to do our homework is exactly why our two party system has been hijacked by the corporations..."

:toast:

[slipslidingaway]

15. I am confused on the vote today...

???

http://senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=110&session=2&vote=00093

Question: On the Cloture Motion (Motion to Invoke Cloture on the Dodd Amdt. No. 4387 )

S.Amdt. 4387 to H.R. 3221 (Renewable Energy and Energy Conservation Tax Act of 2007)

In the nature of a substitute.


http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d110:HR03221:@@@R

H.R.3221

Title: Moving the United States toward greater energy independence and security, developing innovative new technologies, reducing carbon emissions, creating green jobs, protecting consumers, increasing clean renewable energy production, and modernizing our energy infrastructure, and to amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to provide tax incentives for the production of renewable energy and energy conservation.


Latest Major Action: 4/7/2008 Senate floor actions. Status: Considered by Senate.
Note: Omnibus energy legislation was enacted in H.R.6, which became Public Law 110-140 on 12/19/2007. On 4/3/2008, S.Amdt. 4387, an amendment in the nature of a substitute, was proposed to change this bill to the Foreclosure Prevention Act of 2008.

[Telly Savalas]

16. What's the rationale for giving a tax credit to people who buy foreclosed homes?

I don't get it.

If the idea was to solidify neighborhoods by getting people to buy and move into the empty properties, I could see it, but isn't this goal undercut by other provisions in the bill which give artificial incentives to house builders, thereby increasing the amount of housing and thus the percentage of houses which remain empty?

[slipslidingaway]

17. Original proposal was $15,000 tax credit over three years...

and they settled for $7000. credit over two years. It would appear that they want to first help move the supply of houses currently owned by the builders and banks and not those for sale by the average person, in addition to your comment about possibly adding to the supply.

:shrug:


http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/04/02/national/main3991069.shtml?source=RSSattr=HOME_3991069

"...Republicans won a scaled-back version of a plan by Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., to provide a tax credit to people buying foreclosed or newly built homes. Isakson sought $15,000 in tax credits spread over three years - aimed at boosting demand in the slumping housing market - but GOP negotiators settled for a $7,000 credit awarded over two years.

Liberals and conservative economists alike questioned the merits of the idea, however, saying it would have relatively little effect on demand and that to the extent it would lift demand it would boost sales for banks who made bad loans and homebuilders who built homes despite signs that the market was slowing.

"There's ample incentive to buy foreclosed homes," said conservative economist William Niskanen, chairman of the CATO institute.

"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."

[flamin lib]

19. The only thing it might do is aleviate the tax burden on someone

selling a "short sale" where the lender takes less than is owed on the property to save foreclosure costs. The difference between the amount loaned and the amount sold for is considered "income".

For instance, a $280,000 home sold at $250,000 would show a $30,000 income taxed at $30% = $9000 tax bill.

Still, no help at the bottom end of the disaster.

[jmowreader]

21. I don't think so...

It appears that the bill only grants the tax exemption for people buying homes that already went into foreclosure.

Remember always: this bill isn't designed to help the people getting foreclosed upon. This is pretty much the Loan Sharks' Civil Relief Act of 2008.

[flamin lib]

22. Sorry, didn't read the OP closely enough. My bad. nt