Homebuyer Tax Credit Branded a Scam
“The Realtors backed it… the home builders backed it… the mortgage bankers backed it… virtually anyone with an [sic] financial interest in residential real estate transactions backed the Homebuyer Tax Credit (and it’s expanded extension) and now that the program is finally complete and a whole host of indicators … suggest that … its effects were at best temporary, we can see fairly clearly that this policy was a scam of epic proportions benefiting few and costing many.” (Christian Science Monitor)
What did you expect?
FEE Timely Classic
“Can the Feds Save the Housing Market?” by Robert P. Murphy
Comment by Kerry on 24 August 2010:
Why are some surprised? As Hayek said, create a law and you get a false market. Of course, change the law and the market changes.
“Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it whether it exists or not, diagnosing it incorrectly, and applying the wrong remedy.” … Ernest Benn
Comment by Robert Taylor on 24 August 2010:
Let’s go to fundamentals here. You wouldn’t need tax credits if you didn’t have an unconstitutional I.R.S. to begin with. Having such a fascist organization with its jackbooted thugs with guns is wrong, wrong, wrong. The only fair tax would be a national sales tax imposed on retail goods and services with a simultaneous downsigzing of the federal government starting with the Departments of Education, Agriculture, Interior, et al. You already pays a federal sales tax when you buy gasoline. That’s the problem with having an I.R.S. to begin with…you grant them the power to affect political and lobbyists’ decisions.
Comment by William Welch on 24 August 2010:
We all know what must be done, but how to accomplish the job. ie. If I sat in congress you might have a hard time convincing me that I should vote to eliminate my own paycheck and and/or reduce my perks. I do not remember the source, but someone said that the closest thing to eternal life on this planet is a government department.
Comment by R. Bryant on 10 September 2010:
I constantly see all the blather about “fraud” in the homebuyer credit program, but I filed for my LEGITIMATE NHB Credit back in February. It is now September 10, and the IRS is still playing “jump through the hoops” with my return, even though I have provided proof that I actually purchased the home, copies of Warranty Deed with tax stamps indicating the purchase price, filing stamps with the proper local authority, homeowners insurance copies, copies of my drivers license and vehicle registrations showing the physical address of the property I bought, along with numerous utility bill copies and a postmarked copy of my change of address card with the post office. Apparently that is STILL not enough. WTF DO YOU PEOPLE WANT ? Let one of your idiot “agents” take a 30 minute drive and it will take them twenty seconds to confirm that I really do live in my own house. This entire program has been a huge scam….. against the homebuyer, not against the government.