The Coalition of the Swilling

This is wrong on just so many levels.

1. Who is paying the other 50%? Federal funding of course. Which means the rest of us are subsidizing bad loans.

2. Why should firefighters, police officers and teachers get this deal? What's so special about them? They get paid for their jobs. Are we saying that they aren't being paid enough to buy homes? That seems very convenient to give them a huge pay increase through federal funding.

3. And if you object to this payoff to the firefighter/ police/ teachers unions, you'll be accused of not being patriotic or some other such nonsense.

I'll stop there. This makes me so angry.

Fair market value would be one thing but fifty percent off is just ridiculous. Not to mention it makes a great breeding ground for nepotism.

Jeez, more idiots driving this country into the ground. Just what we need.

First, the disclaimer: I agree this is a bad idea. From the standpoint of the taxpayers getting screwed yet again, from the standpoint that this is going to open a big can of worms ("If teachers, why not nurses? Why not school bus drivers...why not everyone who isn't "rich"? Why not make those rich "jerks" pay for our housing, we deserve it and they don't")

However, I wonder if this was done in part because some municipalities have laws stating that people working as police (And perhaps firefighters and teachers as well) have to LIVE in that municipality...and in a lot of places, housing costs do tend to exceed what the average cop, firefighter, or teacher can reasonably afford in a year.

I don't know a good solution to the problem of there needing to be affordable housing in wealthy communities, but this is not it.