Texas Tea Parties – TAXED ENOUGH ALREADY?

The president of the National Association of Realtors, Ron Phipps, has sent the following letter to members, in which he says:

In the days ahead, NAR will be reaching out to Congress and the White House to emphasize the clear connection between housing, jobs and the economy. Rather than limit support for housing, and the availability of credit, NAR is calling on Congress and the White House to advance policies that will move the housing market back to a healthy 5.5 million sales, where it SHOULD be.

We will be asking lawmakers to:

* Preserve the mortgage interest deduction at current levels.
* Move the credit pendulum to equilibrium, defined by a median credit score of 720.
* Maintain government backing in the mortgage market as part of GSE Reform.

These three steps would help bring the housing market back to a normal level, possibly generating an additional 1 million home sales and 500,000 jobs.

As the voice for real estate, we hope that Congress and White House gets the message: real estate is all about jobs.

Here is my reply as posted on his blog.

I suggest that your three points sort of want to hope to move us back to the 1990s, instead of moving forward. We’re not going backwards. The problem now with housing is artificially high prices, which seems to be related to foreclosed loans being held by the Government (whether the Fed, Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac) instead of being auctioned in the private sector. This causes a looming disaster if the percent of loans owned and managed by the US Government increases instead of decreases.

There is nothing wrong with the government being the underwriter of last resort, IF AND ONLY IF the loans provided are at market risk. If they are not, as has been the case with mandated policies of loaning to minorities, then there is what we call “Moral Hazard” in such underwriting. That means that eventually, the bill will become due as those moral hazards create market failures.

Further I suggest examination of the issue of inflation. In the past, serious inflation is accompanied by low unemployment. You suggest policies which would improve housing, and lower unemployment, and therefore, your suggestions would directly create inflation.

Inflation at this time would be the natural result of the some $5 Trillion dollars printed, but it’s being artificially staved off by repressing several market sectors. Of these, housing is the key. The result of your suggestions would likely create something quite worse than the inflation we saw in the Carter years, when home loans surpassed 15%. You can’t have your cake and eat it too.

You see, not only must that $5T be absorbed into the money supply with a consequent weakening of the US dollar, but that deficit spending will possibly continue even with the recent changes in Congress. Right now you can see their policies, as housing is stagnant and yet energy and food prices are rising. This is purposeful, and is due to the fact that government controlled entities can and will affect housing prices, demand curves and the effective interrest rates for those business sections.

George Rodriguez sent the following memo about an upcoming panel discussion with considerable bias in the local Spanish news station. Please read and take some action as requested.

Spendulus

Folks

KLRN Channel 9 is hosting a panel discussion on immigration on 2-8-11. But if you read the attached news article, you will see that the panel includes only liberal Hispanics. I think it’s time to again call the station to complain about this phony discussion which exclude any conservative points of view. The phone number and e-mail is attached. Please hone or e-mail the station and demand equal, fair and balance discussions. It is being organized by Victor Landa, and his e-mail is below, too. Please let them hear our voice.

Thank you.
George Rodriguez
Juan Seguin Society
San Antonio Tea Party
210-367-2058

KLRN phone: 210-270-9000 or 800-627-8193
e-mail: pr@klrn.org
e-mail: vlanda@sbcglobal.net

KLRN TO HOST VME IMMIGRATION PANEL FEB. 8

Who is Victor Landa and what does he believe?

At times, Victor Landa engages in what would be called smear tactics if it wasn’t outright fantasy. For example, in his NewsTaco article “GOP Hits The Ground Going Backwards Landa produces this ridiculous assertion:

The Republican’s are also inching their way toward the deportation of the 12 to 18 million (depending on who’s counting) undocumented taxpayers who live and work in the US. What they are not mentioning is what this would look like, or how much it would cost. But we’ve got an idea. At last count it costss $12,500 dollars to deport one person. Multiply that by 12 million. The Republican idea to deport undocumented persons would cost $150 billion.

In his San Antonio Express News article, “Bet on More Rhetoric Than Results” Landa moans the fact that he expects a lack of “actual forward movement” with the new Congress. That’s certainly true when one defines “actual formward movement” as the socialist and progressive agenda of Barack Obama and George Soros.

Landa’s made no secret of his strong beliefs in free and open borders, euphemistically called “immigration reform”.

Our politicians may be more partisan than before, more intransigent than before and less willing to compromise than before, but they’re not totally inept. They’re good at getting elected. So bills will be debated and votes will be cast, but actual forward movement will be sluggish…

Exactly what conservatives, those whom the American people voted in large numbers into the House of Representatives, consider “action” to Victor Landa is not “actual forward movement”.