I hit every one the Housing Senate committe with this, all the leadership from both parties and a bunch of talk shows and think tanks.

April 5, 2008
Dear Sir or Madam:
I’m writing this letter to voice my strong opposition
to HR 3221 in its current form. This bill if passed
would give home builders an estimated 6 Billion
dollars in tax credits. This is nothing more than
corporate welfare and is a transfer of tax payer’s money
from the federal treasury to corporations.
This bill allows homebuilders to use losses incurred
during the current housing downturn and apply them to
gains made during the housing bubble. The net effect
is corporations will get huge tax rebates from the
government this year for running a bad business and
incurring substantial losses. This is not in keeping
with a free economy.

Please consider the following items in determining if
the home builders should receive tax credits:
• These are the same builders who continued to raise
prices and make incredible profits during the bubble
years. The builders played a major role in both
creating the housing bubble we now suffer from and
profiting from that same bubble.
• The builders continued to build heavily once the
housing boom was obvious to most observers. This
created an oversupply of homes we’re still working off
today. This oversupply resulted in average American
home owners having trouble selling existing homes and
has resulted in lower home values for all involved as
supply exceeded demand. Homebuilders are at fault for
the current supply and price mess!
• Many of these homebuilders relied heavily on illegal
immigrants for labor. By skirting US labor laws, they
forced good skilled American workers out of jobs,
utilized illegal workers at lower prices, and
generated extra profits. They made extra profits
illegally!
• Many of these builders including KB Homes, Centex,
and others ‘Partnered’ with lenders like Countrywide who
is now being investigated by the government for
criminal business practices. These partnerships
created a chain of fraud where builders would provide
incentives only if you used ‘preferred lenders’,
lenders relied on ‘select’ appraisers to validate the
prices, and the consumer paid the price.
I’m shocked to see we now want to reward these bad
businesses who 1) helped create the bubble, 2)
overcharged American consumers in bubble areas for new
homes, 3) made extra profits utilizing illegal
workers, and 4) worked directly with lenders and
appraisers to defraud consumers.
I ask that this provision be stricken from this bill.
If we want to help American citizens keep existing
homes, the answer is not to reward people who made the
problem and still want to build new homes into an
oversupply.

Regards,

XXXX
Concerned Citizen and Voter