Michele Bachmann On Bipartisan Debt Relief: NO!
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2:46 PM | Posted in ,
On Thursday (October 4th), the House of Representatives took up a bill to provide some tax relief to those people dealing with the loss of their home through foreclosure. This bipartisan measure changed the tax code to make sure debt that was forgiven in the process of foreclosure would not later be taxed as income. How did our Congresswoman (who claims to hate taxes in the first place!) respond? Why she voted NO of course. No to tax relief for families already losing their homes. Is it because the measure was paid for by limiting the amount of money people could exclude from their taxes on the sale of a SECOND home? Perhaps, but that brings up another question, why is Michele protecting the taxes of someone with TWO homes over someone who is about to lose their ONLY home?

The Bill:

H.R.3648
Title: To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to exclude discharges of indebtedness on principal residences from gross income, and for other purposes.
Sponsor: Rep Rangel, Charles B. [NY-15] (introduced 9/25/2007) Cosponsors (25)
Related Bills: H.RES.703, H.R.1876, H.R.3506, S.1394
Latest Major Action: 10/4/2007 Referred to Senate committee. Status: Received in the Senate and Read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance.
House Reports: 110-356
MAJOR ACTIONS:
9/25/2007 Introduced in House
10/1/2007 Reported (Amended) by the Committee on Ways and Means. H. Rept. 110-356.
10/4/2007 Passed/agreed to in House: On passage Passed by the Yeas and Nays: 386 - 27 (Roll No. 948).
10/4/2007 Referred to Senate committee: Received in the Senate and Read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance.

From the Ways & Means Committee:

House Committee on Ways and Means
For Immediate Release:
Wednesday, September 26, 2007 		Contact:
Matthew Beck or J. Jioni Palmer
(202) 225-8933

Ways and Means Approves Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief Bill
Legislation would prevent families from “double whammy” of tax liability on foreclosures

WASHINGTON – The House Committee on Ways and Means unanimously approved H.R. 3648, the Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief Act of 2007, today in response to some of the tax issues that have arisen as a result of problems in the subprime mortgage market. Under current law, debt forgiven following mortgage foreclosure or renegotiation is considered income for tax purposes, resulting in tax liability for individuals and families.

The legislation advanced by the Committee today would provide relief to those families by permanently excluding debt forgiven under these circumstances from tax liability. The bill would also help would-be homeowners secure their investments through a long-term extension of the tax deduction for private mortgage insurance, and would ease restrictions for qualifying as housing cooperative corporations. Finally, the bipartisan bill would tighten requirements taxpayers must meet to exclude gain from the sale of certain homes that have been used as a vacation home or rental property.

Families dealing with the pain of a foreclosure should not have the double whammy of a large tax bill for terminating their mortgage through no fault of their own," said Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles B. Rangel. I am pleased the Committee joined together to unanimously pass this critical legislation and I look forward to bringing this measure before the full House."

H.R. 3648 has received strong support from the housing and mortgage industry. Please click here to view a summary of the legislation and letters of support for H.R. 3648.


Once again, Michele joined the ultra minority (only 27 NO votes out of 435 Representatives) to vote against this bill to provide some debt relief. You would think, given the very few people who voted against this bill, that Michele would send out some press release or news update explaining her vote!
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