I stayed home on Tuesday to get my tax info ready for the accountant. I figured April Fools Day was as good a day as any to finish my taxes. So in my usual behavior of avoiding what I don’t like to do, the first thing I did when I turned on my computer was log onto the Internet. I don’t keep my tax info on the Internet. MSN is my home page, and one of the first articles I saw was a link to an article titled “Senate leaders reach deal on foreclosure relief.” Cool. Maybe they’re actually working today. So I read the article.

WHAT A JOKE! The “deal” they reached was an agreement to come up with a new bill that they would be able to agree on. The rest of the article was mostly a bunch of suppositions about what the “new bill” might include.

So tonight (I started writing this on Thursday but probably won’t post it until Friday after I’ve slept on it) I found an Associated Press article summarizing this bill. The Library of Congress won’t have the text published on their web site for a day or two. According to the article there was basically four tax provisions that would cost us $28 billion through the end of 2010. Approximately $25 billion of that would be in the form of tax breaks to builders and banks and $3 billion in tax relief to homeowners. It would also give a temporary $7,000 tax credit awarded over two years to people buying foreclosed homes in the year after the bill in enacted. (REALLY FAIR TO THE REGULAR HOMEOWNER/SELLER). And there is an attempt to raise the amount of down-payment on an FHA loan to 3.5%. And of course it was defeated on the “first full day of debate.” So much for coming to an agreement on Tuesday to have something ready Wednesday that they could agree on.

This so called “full day of debate” also included discussing resolutions designating April 2008 as “National 9-1-1 Education Month,” a resolution honoring the 60th anniversary of the commencement of the carving of the Crazy Horse Memorial, a resolution expressing the sense of the Senate that public servants should be commended for their dedication and continued service to the Nation during Public Service Recognition Week, a resolution designating April 8, 2008 as “National Cushing’s Syndrome Awareness Day,” a bill to establish a commission to commemorate the sesquicentennial of the American Civil War and the list goes on.

With all these other important resolutions, bills and amendments, I don’t really see how our illustrious Senate could fit in a “full day of debate” on the foreclosure issue. Hell, we should all know that honoring the anniversary of the commencement of a carving should take priority over our economy. 

Our Senators get paid $169,300 per year plus free postage, plus some free travel, plus a staff paid for by us, plus, plus, plus. They get very good health benefits and are vested in their pension after only 5 years on the job. I don’t know if tax breaks or bail outs are the right thing for the foreclosure problem. It’s the job of our elected representatives to figure out the solution and stop wasting their time and our money passing bullshit bills and resolutions. 

My suggestion- go to the Library of Congress web site and find out who your representatives are and email, call and snail mail them. Tell them to get off their lazy, incompetent asses and do their jobs. THEY are supposed to be working for US. They get paid very well for that job (what other job are you fully vested in your pension plan after only 5 years?), and they need to be held accountable.

We’ve been experiencing a foreclosure crises, an unemployment crises, an increase in the people getting on food stamps, an increase in the high school drop out rate, etc for quite a while now. And these representatives who have been bought and paid for by special interest groups and feel they owe more to their party than to the people they’re supposed to represent should have been taking care of these problems long before now. They need to hear from us and bend to the will of those for whom they are supposed to represent or join those who are already in the unemployment line or collecting food stamps.