by Tanta on 3/13/2008 10:41:00 AM

I was challenged the other day to defend my claim that the Feldstein Plan (stay above water by repaying your loans faster!) was "teh dumbest" plan I'd seen so far. I should have known that the rhetorical mobilization of hyperbole is an act with karmic consequences.

Via Mish, I bring you Complete CRAP (the Congressional Realtors Appropriation Proposal):

As a longtime realtor in Cobb County, Sen. Johnny Isakson has seen housing downturns before. "We had recessions in 1968, 1974, 1982, and 1991, by every measurement, this is going to be a deeper and bigger recession in residential housing. It's a significant event."

Isakson is pitching an idea to his colleagues in Congress: a $15,000 tax rebate check to anyone who agrees to buy a home. Congressional budget analysts project the program would cost $14 billion over the next few years. But Isakson said the rebate checks are well worth the hefty price tag. "If we can convince buyers to come back to the marketplace and buy these houses, then the houses aren't vacant. It's replaced by an owner-occupant, who is there making payments on a loan and helping all of the other houses around."

I suggest, as an alternative, that members of Congress donate their evenings and weekends, from now until November, appearing gratis at open houses throughout their districts. What better way to convince people to buy homes than to offer them the chance to meet a lawmaker in person, right in the proposed kitchen? Senator Iskason could demonstrate the correct use of granite countertops, while extolling the virtues of free-market capitalism and owner-occupied housing.

Plus it would keep them off the teevee.