Chris Sununu: “I offer an amendment today that deals with what I consider to be a tax loophole that is in the Code that fully exempts…”

“I offer an amendment today that deals with what I consider to be a tax loophole that is in the Code that fully exempts private, for-profit corporations, owned by shareholders that have had very high levels of profit in recent years, from paying any State or local taxes. The entities I am talking about are the Government-sponsored entities Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. These are chartered by the Federal Government. We give them a number of benefits. They help with the secondary mortgage market and have been very successful in that mission. But they are in fact private, for-profit corporations with very large profits, and they do not need to be exempt from paying State and local taxes. In fact, I think if they are really committed to the local communities and the homeowners they serve across the country, they ought to be happy to pay State and local taxes. We have heard a lot of debate over the last several hours about Big Oil. We have even had some amendments that take away tax benefits from oil companies. Some of those amendments I have supported. There have been other amendments that actually impose special taxes on oil companies. Given the concern people seem to have with high levels of profits at oil firms in recent months, I think people should embrace the idea of getting rid of this tax loophole, imposing the same kind of legitimate State and local taxes on the GSEs as we see anywhere else.…”