Health Care Reform – House and Senate proposed bills

  Want to verify all the news being circulated about National Health Care Reform – check out the following links to the current, actual printed bills:
  House Bill ~ http://energycommerce.house.gov/Press_111/20090714/aahca.pdf
  Senate Bill ~ http://help.senate.gov/BAI09A84_xml.pdf

How dare they …. AIG ….

pay out $170 million in bonuses because they were “promised” and they need to keep their “key” employees; the very same ones that assisted in creating the business plan that caused their downfall.  How dare they pay these kinds of bonuses when small businesses are struggling to stay afloat and keep their employees so that they can pay their mortgages, put food on the table, etc.  Employers are cutting contributions to employee 401k plans to help with their bottom line to stay in business and the government has offered us $0 assistance. It is time for AIG to survive on what they have already received or ride off into the sunset like so many other businesses have.  Are we so foolish to expect that these bonuses will get paid back?  In whose lifetime do we think that will transpire.
  In reading the Washington Post this morning, the most E-mailed articles were:
1. Weary of Looking for Work, Some Create Their Own
2. A.I.G. Planning Huge Bonuses After $170 Billion Bailout
3. Where Education and Assimilation Collide
4. Op-Ed Columnist: The Culture Warriors Get Laid Off
5. Your Money: Thoughts on Walking Away From Your Home Loan.
 

Where did the $541 billion in recovery go?

Beyond the Beltway ~ Do you know where all $825 billion is going? 
Check out the following for information ~
Interactive map: Where $541 billion in recovery went
http://blogs.zdnet.com/gadgetreviews/?p=1054

NAR-s 4-Point Plan ~ Your Help Is Needed

Please contact your National legislators and encourage them to adopt NAR’s 4-Point Plan.  A sample letter follows.

December 01, 2008

Representative ____________________

U.S. House of Representatives

Washington, DC 20515-0001

Subject: Reviving the real estate market must be the focus of a future stimulus bill

Dear Representative           ,

As a constituent and a Realtor, I ask that Congress focus any future stimulus package on reinvigorating housing markets. The current crisis is the result of problems in the nation’s housing markets. Efforts to boost the economy must calm jittery real estate markets.

Earlier, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) proposed a 4-Point Housing Stimulus Plan that should be part of any new stimulus package. NAR’s plan would:

*Make the $7500 first-time homebuyer tax credit available to all buyers and eliminate repayment requirements. The credit’s limited availability and repayment requirement severely limit the credit’s use and effectiveness.

*Make the 2008 FHA, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac loan limits permanent. New rules for 2009 will reduce them. Now is not the time to limit mortgage affordability.

*Get the Treasury relief program back on track and target more funds to mortgage relief. Create a federal mortgage interest buy-down program to make below-market rates available and stabilize home prices.

*Permanently bar banks from engaging in real estate brokerage and management. The banks have proven they have enough to do to simply manage the loan process. Banks should not manage home sales and purchases.

Housing has always lifted our economy out of past economic downturns. It’s imperative now to foster a housing recovery, so that the economy can recover. Thank you for your hard work.