Apr 13 2008
Graham, DeMint Differ on Housing Legislation
GRAHAM VOTES ‘YES’Graham, a Seneca resident seeking election to his second term in November, cited the $4 billion for new community development grants as being among a half-dozen positive features in the housing-aid legislation. The bill also provides a $7,000 tax credit, over two years, for buying a foreclosed home. It offers a standard property tax deduction for taxpayers who don’t itemize on their IRS returns.
“While not a perfect package, this bill will hopefully provide short-term relief to homeowners facing foreclosure and flexibility to lenders to renegotiate loan terms,” Graham said.
DEMINT SAYS ‘NO’
DeMint didn’t see it that way.
“This bill needlessly spends billions of dollars to bail out lenders, makes our tax code more complex and will do little to stimulate our economy,” he said. “In fact, this bill could have the perverse effect of increasing the number of foreclosures and reducing home values.”
The one thing the news tends to leave out is that a lot of these foreclosures are investors, not primary home owners. These are people that bought these houses in order to upgrade them and then flip them in a short period of time and walk away with a $50,000 profit in their hands. It was a good way to make money while the housing market was simmering up, but now that the bubble has burst these people are feeling the pain of the risk they took. Why should we bail them out? As for the people who bought as primary home owners, they took the responsibility for buying more than they could afford and they need to sink with their decision.
As usual, DeMint is standing on principle and Graham is taking the populist road, whoring himself for votes in the upcoming primary.
