Editorial
08/04/11 Categories: Editorial
Editorial: The Debt Bill (Budget Control Act of 2011)
It is easy to become depressed when you follow the news these days.Unemployment seems to be stuck at a rate near 10%, millions of people are about to lose their homes by foreclosure, and the American dream of owning a home has turned into a nightmare for many Americans.
This past Tuesday, August 2, 2011, ends one of the most outrageous episodes of legislative nonsense I can remember. Our government shot itself in the foot -- inflicting an injury upon our economy and our people that will take years to heal. Recent polls show that the public's faith in their government has reached an all time low. This feeling crosses party lines and includes virtually every group polled. The selfish and self-serving behavior of too many of our so-called legislators is disgusting.
What in the past made America a great country was that the people believed in democracy and enjoyed the benefits of being free as a direct result of our democratic form of government. Hopefully, it will sink into the heads of voters of all persuasions that we want and need an effective government. Then we will wake up and through the power of the vote put into office people who will once again make our government function.
Having gotten that off my chest, let's examine what this Budget Control Act of 2011 did for housing and us real estate professionals. To answer this question, you need to look at the actual bill. Here is the URL: http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2011/08/01/us/politics/debt-ceiling-bill-text.html?hp
You will see that the bill is just 74 pages and if you look carefully you will see at the top that there is a search function. Try it out by typing in the word "budget" and see what happens. The result is that it appears 35 times, and each time is shaded yellow. Now try "Housing". Guess what? The word "Housing" does not appear anywhere in the 74 pages. Try "mortgage". Same result. Try "foreclosure". Struck out again. No results for "taxes" either.
The bottom line is that the government officials -- the President, the House and the Senate -- continue to ignore the best way to jump start the economy and create millions of jobs: fix up all the foreclosed houses and sell or rent them.
I invite you (if you haven't already done so) to read my Editorial in the June 2011 Issue of REV, entitled "Economics: How to Solve Housing Market Chaos & Help Relieve Unemployment." [Click on the highlighted word "Editorial" at the top of this paragraph to go there.]
It is easy to become depressed when you follow the news these days.Unemployment seems to be stuck at a rate near 10%, millions of people are about to lose their homes by foreclosure, and the American dream of owning a home has turned into a nightmare for many Americans.
This past Tuesday, August 2, 2011, ends one of the most outrageous episodes of legislative nonsense I can remember. Our government shot itself in the foot -- inflicting an injury upon our economy and our people that will take years to heal. Recent polls show that the public's faith in their government has reached an all time low. This feeling crosses party lines and includes virtually every group polled. The selfish and self-serving behavior of too many of our so-called legislators is disgusting.
What in the past made America a great country was that the people believed in democracy and enjoyed the benefits of being free as a direct result of our democratic form of government. Hopefully, it will sink into the heads of voters of all persuasions that we want and need an effective government. Then we will wake up and through the power of the vote put into office people who will once again make our government function.
Having gotten that off my chest, let's examine what this Budget Control Act of 2011 did for housing and us real estate professionals. To answer this question, you need to look at the actual bill. Here is the URL: http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2011/08/01/us/politics/debt-ceiling-bill-text.html?hp
You will see that the bill is just 74 pages and if you look carefully you will see at the top that there is a search function. Try it out by typing in the word "budget" and see what happens. The result is that it appears 35 times, and each time is shaded yellow. Now try "Housing". Guess what? The word "Housing" does not appear anywhere in the 74 pages. Try "mortgage". Same result. Try "foreclosure". Struck out again. No results for "taxes" either.
The bottom line is that the government officials -- the President, the House and the Senate -- continue to ignore the best way to jump start the economy and create millions of jobs: fix up all the foreclosed houses and sell or rent them.
I invite you (if you haven't already done so) to read my Editorial in the June 2011 Issue of REV, entitled "Economics: How to Solve Housing Market Chaos & Help Relieve Unemployment." [Click on the highlighted word "Editorial" at the top of this paragraph to go there.]