Speaking with reporters following a long House Ways and Means Committee meeting on Wednesday, Chair (at least for the nonce) Charles Rangel said that he plans to bring out three major tax bills this year (beyond the health care reform, which is in large part a tax bill): addressing estate tax, "extenders", and the economy. BNA Daily Tax RealTime (Oct. 14 6:07).
Among the economic stimulus? extenders? (appears to be proposed as both) items to be considered--extending the home tax credit (currently $8000 expiring Dec 1). In the Senate, Baucus isn't sure but Conrad wants at least a six-month extension on the credit. Since housing continues to be weak "I think it would be unwise to let the credit lapse." I wonder what Conrad wants--to get housing back to where it was with the inflated bubble of ready money, subprime loans, bank speculative frenzies and irresponsible buying above one's purchasing capacity? Instead of passing provisions destined to put money in the pocket of the less needy (anyone who is thinking of buying a home right now is not one of the seven million or so working Americans who have lost their jobs), why don't these guys have the guts to enact the most important provision for helping home ownership in America--a requirement that mortgage loans be modifiable in bankruptcy? And then they could enact some banking reforms.
Tax provisions are the least effective way to provide economic stimulus--let's build real railways, repair real bridges, and buy equipment for real schools. And most of the "extenders" (if by that they mean the various tax breaks for one group or another, like the R&D credit, the capital gain rate for dividends, the home purchase credit) shouldn't be extended. Personally, I think we've had enough of these several-times-a-year tax bills that provide one more chance for the greedy lobbyists and their clients to feed at the federal tax-cut trough. Sometimes you end up with a good pay-for--the carried interest proposal would be one that should be passed. But most of the time it is a hodge-podge that makes little coherent sense and amounts to too much of a giveaway to some industry or other.
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