Post by unlawflcombatnt on Feb 3, 2008 18:56:03 GMT -6
I received the following Email from California's US Senator, Barbara Boxer. Below is the link and the text:
boxer.senate.gov/news/outreach/2008/01/stimulusp.cfm
"
January 25, 2008
Honorable Harry Reid
Majority Leader
U.S. Senate
Washington, DC
Honorable Max Baucus
Chairman
Senate Finance Committee
Washington, DC
Dear Senators Reid and Baucus:
I am very supportive of Congress's efforts to address the economic downturn by moving quickly on a stimulus package. As the Senate moves forward, I would like to outline the following recommendations which I believe will make the economic stimulus package more effective and longer lasting for California and the country.
Rebate Checks for Seniors: I applaud the decision to include rebate checks for an additional 35 million low-income earners most in need of economic relief and most likely to spend the money quickly, but we need to do more. I hope the Committee will also consider helping low-income seniors who do not pay taxes. California is home to 3.9 million people age 65 and older, many of whom live on fixed incomes and are particularly hard hit by rising prices.
Foreclosure Crisis Relief: I strongly support raising the loan limits for the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) and Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac up to $729,750,* as included in the preliminary House bill. In my own state of California, the median home price is over $530,000 and some urban areas in the state have median home prices of over $800,000, making these higher loan limits essential.
CDBG Funding: A new $10 billion Community Development Block Grant initiative is needed to help communities combat the rising tide of vacant houses caused by the foreclosure crisis. Funds should go to local governments in the most affected areas and could be used to help maintain vacant properties, fight vandalism and crime, and purchase foreclosed homes.
Unemployment Insurance: California faces a particularly high unemployment rate of 6.1 percent -- the sixth highest nationwide. Job creation has also been very slow in our state, with a mere average of 6,900 jobs a month having been created since 2001. Extending unemployment insurance, which provides highly targeted economic relief to those most in need, must be included in any stimulus legislation.
Hunger Relief: I encourage you to include a significant increase in Food Stamp benefits for current recipients. There are currently 2 million Californians receiving food stamps, with another 2 million – and growing – eligible. Increasing food stamps provides a high per-dollar benefit to the economy and helps the neediest Americans.
Furthermore, there has been a drastic decline in emergency food provided to California by the USDA. In 2002 USDA provided nearly 100 million pounds of food to our state’s food banks, but by 2007, less than 40 million pounds of food were delivered.
Medicaid Assistance: State budget deficits are growing – in California we are now facing a $14.5 billion shortfall – and increasing the share of Medicaid paid by the federal government (the Federal Medicaid Assistance Percentages or FMAP) is essential. California’s Medicaid program, MediCal, provides health and long-term care coverage to over 10 million people who are most in need of medical coverage and least able to afford it.
Job Creation Through Renewable Energy Incentives: Extending tax incentives for renewable energy production will immediately encourage the production of clean energy, and will also help create long-term and sustainable “green jobs” – already an important part of California’s economy and the future of America’s economy.
Job Creation Through Infrastructure Investment: There are a significant number of highway and wastewater infrastructure projects that are ready to proceed within 90 days. Since each $1 billion of infrastructure spending creates an estimated 47,500 jobs, investment in those projects will help address the current construction unemployment rate of 9.5 percent.
I thank you for considering these requests and look forward to working with you to ensure the Senate economic stimulus package helps California and the nation
Sincerely,
Barbara Boxer
United States Senator"
-------------
*
Boxer has an undergraduate degree in Economics, and she knows exactly what will happen if conforming loan limits are raised, on loans purchased by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. (and raised tremendously—from the current $417K to ~ $800K) This will provide more loan money to maintain current home prices. It will help keep California home prices unaffordable. It will prevent them from falling to a true market level, consistent with historical levels dictated by Californians' income.
And it will put taxpayers on the hook for the inevitable bail-out of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Worse still, it will make the size of the taxpayer-funded bailout even larger.
This is an unabashed bail-out of banks, mortgage brokers, MBS purchasers, and housing speculators. Not only does it bail out the same financial "geniuses" and con-artists who created this mess, it actually rewards them. And it does so at the expense of most Californians, especially those Boxer claims she's trying to help.
If there are 10 million Californians who are poor enough to be on Medi-Cal, they must also be eligible for Welfare (TANF). This means there are at least 10 million Californians that will be hurt by keeping home prices high by raising conforming loan limits.
But this 10 million number grossly understates the number actually affected. Most recent survey's put California home affordability at 10-12%. Which means that 88-90% of Californians can not
afford homes. The proposed increase in conforming loan limits hurts all of that 88-90%, ensuring that homes will remain unaffordable.
Once again, our government has concocted a "stimulus" package that offers only crumbs to most Americans--hoping to disguise its true intent—that of bailing out their rich campaign contributors and cronies in the Financial Industry.
The goal is to save the richest Americans from the consequences of their greed-motivated actions. The goal is to ensure that those at the top can continue privatizing profits, while socializing their losses.
The goal is to maintain our Corporate Welfare state, making sure the wealthy don't become less wealthy—by allowing them to dump their losses on non-wealthy taxpayers. This is just another reverse Robin Hood scam--ensuring that wealth continues to be transferred upwards.
It's no surprise that the Financial Industry bailout aspect is rarely mentioned by the news media. They're hoping no one will find out about it. They're hoping to fill air time by discussing the other aspects, and divert attention away from the Corporate Welfare aspect.
The Financial Industry is getting plenty of help already, Senator Boxer. How about worrying more about ALL of your constituents, instead of just the rich ones? How about worrying about the voters, instead of your big campaign contributors only.
There may be some good proposals in the suggested package. But they're more than nullified by the Housing/Financial Industry bail-out. If the Corporate bailout aspect becomes part of the package, most Americans will be worse off, not better.
boxer.senate.gov/news/outreach/2008/01/stimulusp.cfm
"
January 25, 2008
Honorable Harry Reid
Majority Leader
U.S. Senate
Washington, DC
Honorable Max Baucus
Chairman
Senate Finance Committee
Washington, DC
Dear Senators Reid and Baucus:
I am very supportive of Congress's efforts to address the economic downturn by moving quickly on a stimulus package. As the Senate moves forward, I would like to outline the following recommendations which I believe will make the economic stimulus package more effective and longer lasting for California and the country.
Rebate Checks for Seniors: I applaud the decision to include rebate checks for an additional 35 million low-income earners most in need of economic relief and most likely to spend the money quickly, but we need to do more. I hope the Committee will also consider helping low-income seniors who do not pay taxes. California is home to 3.9 million people age 65 and older, many of whom live on fixed incomes and are particularly hard hit by rising prices.
Foreclosure Crisis Relief: I strongly support raising the loan limits for the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) and Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac up to $729,750,* as included in the preliminary House bill. In my own state of California, the median home price is over $530,000 and some urban areas in the state have median home prices of over $800,000, making these higher loan limits essential.
CDBG Funding: A new $10 billion Community Development Block Grant initiative is needed to help communities combat the rising tide of vacant houses caused by the foreclosure crisis. Funds should go to local governments in the most affected areas and could be used to help maintain vacant properties, fight vandalism and crime, and purchase foreclosed homes.
Unemployment Insurance: California faces a particularly high unemployment rate of 6.1 percent -- the sixth highest nationwide. Job creation has also been very slow in our state, with a mere average of 6,900 jobs a month having been created since 2001. Extending unemployment insurance, which provides highly targeted economic relief to those most in need, must be included in any stimulus legislation.
Hunger Relief: I encourage you to include a significant increase in Food Stamp benefits for current recipients. There are currently 2 million Californians receiving food stamps, with another 2 million – and growing – eligible. Increasing food stamps provides a high per-dollar benefit to the economy and helps the neediest Americans.
Furthermore, there has been a drastic decline in emergency food provided to California by the USDA. In 2002 USDA provided nearly 100 million pounds of food to our state’s food banks, but by 2007, less than 40 million pounds of food were delivered.
Medicaid Assistance: State budget deficits are growing – in California we are now facing a $14.5 billion shortfall – and increasing the share of Medicaid paid by the federal government (the Federal Medicaid Assistance Percentages or FMAP) is essential. California’s Medicaid program, MediCal, provides health and long-term care coverage to over 10 million people who are most in need of medical coverage and least able to afford it.
Job Creation Through Renewable Energy Incentives: Extending tax incentives for renewable energy production will immediately encourage the production of clean energy, and will also help create long-term and sustainable “green jobs” – already an important part of California’s economy and the future of America’s economy.
Job Creation Through Infrastructure Investment: There are a significant number of highway and wastewater infrastructure projects that are ready to proceed within 90 days. Since each $1 billion of infrastructure spending creates an estimated 47,500 jobs, investment in those projects will help address the current construction unemployment rate of 9.5 percent.
I thank you for considering these requests and look forward to working with you to ensure the Senate economic stimulus package helps California and the nation
Sincerely,
Barbara Boxer
United States Senator"
-------------
*
Boxer has an undergraduate degree in Economics, and she knows exactly what will happen if conforming loan limits are raised, on loans purchased by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. (and raised tremendously—from the current $417K to ~ $800K) This will provide more loan money to maintain current home prices. It will help keep California home prices unaffordable. It will prevent them from falling to a true market level, consistent with historical levels dictated by Californians' income.
And it will put taxpayers on the hook for the inevitable bail-out of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Worse still, it will make the size of the taxpayer-funded bailout even larger.
This is an unabashed bail-out of banks, mortgage brokers, MBS purchasers, and housing speculators. Not only does it bail out the same financial "geniuses" and con-artists who created this mess, it actually rewards them. And it does so at the expense of most Californians, especially those Boxer claims she's trying to help.
If there are 10 million Californians who are poor enough to be on Medi-Cal, they must also be eligible for Welfare (TANF). This means there are at least 10 million Californians that will be hurt by keeping home prices high by raising conforming loan limits.
But this 10 million number grossly understates the number actually affected. Most recent survey's put California home affordability at 10-12%. Which means that 88-90% of Californians can not
afford homes. The proposed increase in conforming loan limits hurts all of that 88-90%, ensuring that homes will remain unaffordable.
Once again, our government has concocted a "stimulus" package that offers only crumbs to most Americans--hoping to disguise its true intent—that of bailing out their rich campaign contributors and cronies in the Financial Industry.
The goal is to save the richest Americans from the consequences of their greed-motivated actions. The goal is to ensure that those at the top can continue privatizing profits, while socializing their losses.
The goal is to maintain our Corporate Welfare state, making sure the wealthy don't become less wealthy—by allowing them to dump their losses on non-wealthy taxpayers. This is just another reverse Robin Hood scam--ensuring that wealth continues to be transferred upwards.
It's no surprise that the Financial Industry bailout aspect is rarely mentioned by the news media. They're hoping no one will find out about it. They're hoping to fill air time by discussing the other aspects, and divert attention away from the Corporate Welfare aspect.
The Financial Industry is getting plenty of help already, Senator Boxer. How about worrying more about ALL of your constituents, instead of just the rich ones? How about worrying about the voters, instead of your big campaign contributors only.
There may be some good proposals in the suggested package. But they're more than nullified by the Housing/Financial Industry bail-out. If the Corporate bailout aspect becomes part of the package, most Americans will be worse off, not better.