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Ways & Means Committee Says “We Love Housing Too”

1 min readBy: Gerald Prante

While the Senate is busy finalizing what amounts to terrible taxA tax is a mandatory payment or charge collected by local, state, and national governments from individuals or businesses to cover the costs of general government services, goods, and activities. policy, the House Ways and Means CommitteeThe Committee on Ways and Means, more commonly referred to as the House Ways and Means Committee, is one of 29 U.S. House of Representative committees and is the chief tax-writing committee in the U.S. The House Ways and Means Committee has jurisdiction over all bills relating to taxes and other revenue generation, as well as spending programs like Social Security, Medicare, and unemployment insurance, among others. has said “Don’t forget about us! We can make bad tax policy too.”

You cannot make this stuff up, folks. It is maddening. The House Ways & Means Committee has voted to make the IRS the new Freddie Mac. The committee passed yesterday an $11 billion Housing Assistance Tax Act. As today’s Daily Tax Report explains, it would create a “refundable tax creditA refundable tax credit can be used to generate a federal tax refund larger than the amount of tax paid throughout the year. In other words, a refundable tax credit creates the possibility of a negative federal tax liability. An example of a refundable tax credit is the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC). of up to $7,500 for first-time home buyers, who would be required to repay the amount received over the next 15 years in equal installments.”

Rangel, McCrery, and Co. want to use the tax code for the government to offer taxpayers interest-free loans for housing. I guess we don’t have enough federal spending programs that are designed to subsidize and ensure loans for housing. We only have an entire cabinet department called Housing and Urban Development, and two government-created entities called Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae.

And to believe that there are Republicans on this committee who claim to be in favor of “small government.” Anybody on this committee who voted for this provision and says he/she favors simplification of the tax code is either a liar or a hypocrite.

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