Wednesday, May 20, 2009

U.S. Senator Johnny Isakson (R-GA)
Floor Statement on Housing Tax Credit Amendment
Remarks as Delivered on the Senate Floor

Madam President, this amendment is very simple. You heard me many times come to the floor to talk about the housing tax credit. The tax credit we finally amended to repeal the payback provision of $8,000 for first-time home buyers has brought an improvement in home sales of 40 percent at the entry level.

This amendment merely removes the means test of a maximum income of $150,000 for a couple and $75,000 for an individual, and it removes the means test that they have to be a first-time home buyer, which means any home buyer buying a home for their principal residence would receive an $8,000 tax credit and there would be no limitation to their income to disqualify them.

I have always fought on this floor for a maximum tax credit of $15,000, and I know how difficult that has been. But in the evidence of what has happened with the current $8,000 with the means test, by removing it I am confident we will have a significant improvement in the housing market in America, which in turn will cause a significant improvement in the economy of the United States of America, as happened in 1968, 1974, 1981, 1982 and 1990 to 1991. Housing took America into a recession, and it was only when it recovered that America began to come out.

This improvement in that amendment, with this amendment, will be better for the people of the United States of America and better for our economy. I encourage my colleagues at an appropriate time to cast a favorable vote.