The housing crisis is eroding the confidence of our nation’s homeowners, financial institutions, and investors at an accelerating rate. Americans are growing anxious that the equity they’ve paid into their homes may not provide the financial security that home ownership once guaranteed. Worst of all, nearly 1.9 million borrowers across the nation – more than 50,000 of them in Texas – who have filed for foreclosure on their homes this year live with diminished hope that their own symbol of the American dream will be realized.

The Federal National Mortgage Association (Fannie Mae) and the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (Freddie Mac) each have similar roles in the home mortgage market. They buy mortgages from primary lenders – like banks – which make additional funds available to those banks to lend to other potential homeowners. Read the rest of this entry »

Tomorrow, the House will consider a massive housing bill that not only forces taxpayers to guarantee over $300 billion in new home loans for troubled borrowers, but also includes an unprecedented bailout for the trillion dollar mortgage giant Government Sponsored Enterprises (GSEs), Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. This package is being rushed to the floor without having any hearings or markups on the matter, and will likely come up under a rule that limits debate and precludes amendments.

Many opposed the core housing bill because it would bailout big banks that made risky bets in housing by forcing 95 percent of Americans (those who rent, own their own homes outright, or are on time with their mortgages) to bail out the other 5 percent (those who are near or in foreclosure). The bill now also contains $4 billion in new CDBG spending for local communities to buy foreclosed properties, which would do nothing to help struggling homeowners, as well as imposes a backdoor home mortgage tax to fund a housing slush fund for leftist housing activist groups, like ACORN and La Raza. Read the rest of this entry »

The National Taxpayers Union Foundation (NTUF) released its latest BillTally report examining the costs of proposals backed by Members of Congress, and the results aren’t pretty. The data clearly shows that Congress’s raw legislative work product is not concentrated on reducing the federal deficit.

While there are some signs that more lawmakers in the 110th Congress are seeking out ways to trim expenditures, these steps have been halting and erratic. The majority of lawmakers sponsored a mix of legislation that would, on net, result in new spending, thereby increasing the strain on the budget and the burden on taxpayers.

The latest report analyzes every piece of legislation introduced in the first session of the 110th Congress that would affect federal spending by at least $1 million. If all those bills became law, how would taxpayers be affected?

N. Gregory Mankiw, former head of President Bush’s Council of Economic Advisers, once compared an economist who says that tax cuts pay for themselves to a “snake oil salesman trying to sell a miracle cure.” Unfortunately, miracle cures are just what some policymakers are trying to sell the American people as they push for extending the Bush tax cuts permanently.

Their claim is that cutting taxes causes so much economic growth that revenues rise to higher levels with the tax cuts than without them. If this were true, extending the Bush tax cuts past their scheduled expiration in 2010 would actually help reduce future budget deficits. Read the rest of this entry »

This week, the House is once again prepared to consider legislation that will address many of the causes behind the recent crisis in America’s housing and mortgage markets. Many Americans, particularly many in my home state of Michigan, feel nervous about their homes with the daily news of mortgage companies, brokerages and banks in crisis. House Financial Services Chairman Barney Frank has done a terrific job crafting a bill that will deal with the current crisis situation, increase regulatory oversight of the lending practices that created this mess and increase the amount of affordable housing in our country.

The reforms to the Federal Housing Authority (FHA) are long overdue and much needed. Now if Chairman Frank had his way, these problems would have been addressed years ago, but Democrats were in the Minority and we should give him credit for taking the steps we need now. This bill will enable the FHA to assist homeowners facing foreclosure by refinancing them into sustainable loans. It reminds me of one of FDR’s great inventions - the Homeowners’ Loan Corporation - which saved the homes of countless American families during the Great Depression.  This is exactly the kind of smart leadership and inventive thinking that Americans were looking for when they voted to give Democrats control of the 110th Congress. Read the rest of this entry »

Sen. Baucus is chairman of the Senate Finance Committee.

Last week, millions of Americans tuned in to watch the best baseball players in the country battle for the 2008 All-Star Game crown. But while Americans watched the stars of baseball step up to the plate and swing for the grandstand, millions were more worried about the future of their own homes than about the runners crossing home plate. It’s time for Congress to step up to the plate and do our best for American homeowners. As Chairman of the Finance Committee, I’ve worked especially hard to include some very important tax measures in the housing bill that will help us break this housing slump.

One of the major symptoms of the housing slump is a glut of vacant homes on the market. By providing a repayable tax credit to first-time home buyers, we can help families buy their first homes while trimming back excess supply in the housing market. This credit gives the market the short-term energy it needs. This bill will also make the standard property tax deduction available to homeowners who don’t itemize their taxes, allowing 28 million people to claim the deduction, and maybe pay off a portion of that mortgage while they’re at it. Read the rest of this entry »

The Hill’s Jackie Kucinich gives a preview of the week ahead on Capitol Hill.

Last week, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released a report providing analysis of the long-term economic effects of forgoing the pay-as-you-go (PAYGO) budget rules. The report uncovered an alarming fiscal 2008 deficit that is likely to be one of the largest in history.  In a time when our national economy is deeply in a recession and many parts of our country are hovering around a depression, we must think about long-term solutions.  We must think about solutions for our children and grandchildren.  And we must find solutions that will decrease the $31,000 of individual debt that every American is carrying around today.

As members of Congress, we must do a better job of working together between both the Senate and the House, and on both sides of the aisle.  We must ensure that we are being fiscally responsible when debating and voting on bills and we must hold true to our commitment to PAYGO.

You would think that with the steady flow of pessimistic reports news about the struggling economy that sooner or later you’d encounter a headline that proclaimed, “New Government Regs to Hamper Economy, Hurt Consumers.”

But the regulatory burden keeps building, the economic harm keeps mounting, and still no headline, no “Added Rules to Slow Growth, Benefits Unclear.” It’s an aspect of the regulatory world that sure needs to be reported. Read the rest of this entry »

Democratic Sens. Russ Feingold (Wis.), Chris Dodd (Conn.), and Bob Menendez (N.J.) told oil companies Wednesday that they wanted answers as to why oil companies are not drilling for oil on the 68 million acres of land they already lease from the federal government.