Johnny Isakson: “the amendment is merely a technical amendment on dates and no other substantial change. It is rare that we have a…”

“the amendment is merely a technical amendment on dates and no other substantial change. It is rare that we have a roadmap to success in times of difficulty, but this country has once before realized a housing crisis every bit as bad as the one we have today and economic troubles and unemployment every bit as dangerous, and that was in 1974. In 1975, the Democratic Congress and a Republican President, Gerald Ford, came together for the American people and passed a $2,000 tax credit for the purchase of any standing, vacant, new house and in one year's time a 3-year inventory had been dissipated to 10 months, housing was restored, values returned, and the economy again began to prosper. Thirteen months ago, in January of last year, I introduced this same amendment. It was scored at that time by Joint Tax at a cost of $11.4 billion. The Finance Committee in its wisdom elected not to include this in the proposal because they said it was too expensive. Since they said that was too expensive, we have spent $4 trillion between the Federal Reserve and the Congress and the U.S. Treasury, and the problem is worse. So I would submit this is a very small price to pay for a solution that at least we have an historical precedent that it works. The score on this legislation is $18.9 billion.”