Don't Get Fooled Again ...

Senate amendment 353 arrived as a buzzword in my email this week. "Urge your Senator to support amendment 353 to reduce mortgage rates to 4.5 percent," urged the president of the real estate company that holds my license, and included a link to make it easy for me to reach out to my Senators. And it sounded like such a great idea. What home owner wouldn't welcome that huge a reduction in their mortgage rate? Think what spending that additional money might mean to the faultering economy. And then tonight, an update from our new mortgage officer: "Senate amendment 353 has been defeated." I had to do some research.
It turns out, amendment 353 wasn't just an amendment to reduce mortgage rates with federal subsidies. It also included provisions for capital gains and small business tax cuts, and some other verbiage I lack the legislative training to decode along the lines of a "5-year Carryback of Net Operating Losses and Delayed Recognition of Certain Cancellation of Debt Income". Sponsored by a relatively obscure Republican Nevada Senator, and hidden under the attractive title of "Fix Housing Now", it looked to contain the kind of tax breaks and loopholes the Republicans were thrown out of office for in the last election. These are the people who bring you logging in National Forests under the Healthy Forests Initiative. Reduced air quality standards under the Clear Skies Act. We got rid of them but we really didn't -- they spent the months between November and January sharpening their rhetoric and they will do just about anything to get back into the political picture.
While Barack Obama was preaching a politics of inclusion, going so far as to reach out to his opponent through a face to face meeting (what incoming president ever did that before?) the Republicans were doing what they do best, strategizing how best to buzzword and slogan their way back into the hearts and minds of frightened populace.
So my fellow citizens, be wary. Expect to have your emotions and fears manipulated by the same people who created the mess within which we find ourselves. Read between the lines when you're urged to support something. Ask to see the fine print. If something sounds too good to be true to fix the mess, it probably is.