Senate Proceeding on Oct 13th, 2009 :: 0:34:30 to 0:43:00
Total video length: 2 hours 11 minutes Stream Tools: Stream Overview | Edit Time

Note: MetaVid video transcripts may contain inaccuracies, help us build a more perfect archive

Views:58 Duration: 0:08:30 Discussion

Previous speech:

Next speech:

0:34:19 to 0:34:40( Edit History Discussion )

Johnny Isakson: the presiding officer: the a senator: mr. president, are we in morning business? the presiding officer: we are. mr. isakson: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent to speak for up to ten minutes. the presiding officer: without objection, so ordered. mr. isakson: i come to the floor to discuss for a minute our economy and the pending termination or sunset of the first-time home buyer tax credit and the potential implications

0:34:30 to 0:43:00( Edit History Discussion )
Speech By: Johnny Isakson

0:34:41 to 0:35:02( Edit History Discussion )

Johnny Isakson: and effects it certainly is going to have on what is at best a very fragile economy today. first, i want to reference this morning's "usa t section where they reported that existing home sales trailed down in the month of august off of the month of july. they did note they were better than august of the year ago, but still deploreably low.

0:35:03 to 0:35:24( Edit History Discussion )

Johnny Isakson: of all the sales that were made in the month of august, 30% were attributable to the first-time home buyer tax credit. unfortunately, substantially all the rest were attributable short sales or foreclosures. mr. president, i was home friday. in my state of a law that says if you forlose

0:35:25 to 0:35:45( Edit History Discussion )

Johnny Isakson: on a deed to secure debt or a mortgage, that you must advertise for four successive fridays preceding the first tuesday in the following month in order to foreclose. so every friday in the legal order of every county in georgia there is a section for foreclosure advertisers. i hold all 74 pages of the

0:35:46 to 0:36:07( Edit History Discussion )

Johnny Isakson: marietta journal legal notices announcing the foreclosure on 1,157 homes in a 700,000 people. mr. president, houses continue to decline in their value because the market demand is down. these foreclosures that you see today are not subprime loans. they were the loans tha were

0:36:08 to 0:36:28( Edit History Discussion )

Johnny Isakson: foreclosed on a year or a year and a half ago. when you read the addresses of these 1,157 -- which i won do -- but when you do read them, they are the addresses of mainstream america. and the mortgages that are being foreclosed on are what's called conventional loans that were made to people who had jobs, had

0:36:29 to 0:36:49( Edit History Discussion )

Johnny Isakson: an income payments and had a down payment of 5%, 10% or 20%. these are the good loans a year ago that today are the loans being foreclosed on. in my state, there are 13 -- 1 out of every 13 houses is right now behind in their payments. foreclosures are at record rates.

0:36:50 to 0:37:11( Edit History Discussion )

Johnny Isakson: and the first-time home buyer what does that have to do with this foreclosure problem we have values of houses and shrinking equities of american people? it has everything to do about it. you see, we got a great demonstration project in the first-time home buyer tax credit that shows this congress the way to continue and get a recovery

0:37:12 to 0:37:33( Edit History Discussion )

Johnny Isakson: in our housing market. in the time that the first-time home buyer tax credit has been in effect, it is estimated 350,000 home sales were made. that's 357,000 sales that would not have taken place. what we need to do is look at the value of the home buyer tax credit and see whether an extension makes sense.

0:37:34 to 0:37:58( Edit History Discussion )

Johnny Isakson: it should be structured. well, first of all, i say it makes sense because we've had modest success with the first-time creditor. but i think the limitations of a first-time home buyer and a maximum of $150,000 in income actually restrict us from helping the part of the market that's represented in these foreclosure pages. because these are houses where people with more than $150,000

0:37:59 to 0:38:19( Edit History Discussion )

Johnny Isakson: in income would need to qua move-up loans, the homes the corporate executives and transferees from around the country sell when they leave their home county and are transferred to a new job in another city or another state. we need to energize that market because the move-up market is where the problem exists. so i would submit that if we look at the sunset date of

0:38:20 to 0:38:42( Edit History Discussion )

Johnny Isakson: november 30 on first-time home buyer credit that we should extend it. not forever, but through midyear next year. end of june 2010. there's a reason for that recommendation. the worst three months of the year in any anywhere in the united states are december, january, and february. because it's winter and because it's holidays. so there is not much of a

0:38:43 to 0:39:04( Edit History Discussion )

Johnny Isakson: to begin with in those three months. if it tax credit dies in november and then it dies the day before the declining normal market takes place, but the time the spring market comes back in march and april, it is too late, and we will have a protracted period of even poorer sales than we have had recently. but if we pass and extend the credit through june 30 of next

0:39:05 to 0:39:25( Edit History Discussion )

Johnny Isakson: year, we continue to buoy the housing market around the country. and if we take away the first-time home b raise it to any home buyer who pwaoeuz a home for their principal residence and resides in it for three years and raise the in many limitation -- income limitation, we stimulate the entire marketplace.

0:39:26 to 0:39:48( Edit History Discussion )

Johnny Isakson: it has a cost to it. a score of $16 billion, and that's a lot of money. but it's less than 3% of the amount of the stimulus. and we know from what's happened in the last nine months that it works. it is very important, mr. president that we stimulate and continue the existing stimulation of the housing market. the recession that began in

0:39:49 to 0:40:10( Edit History Discussion )

Johnny Isakson: december of 2007, began with the collapse of housing first because of the subprime mortgage failures. but it continues today. a continuing collapse, and the failures aren't subprime, high-risk credits. they are mainstream america. there is a point in time where we owe it to our country, we owe it to our economy, we owe it mainstream america, where we know we have a proven program that works to extend it and buoy

0:40:11 to 0:40:31( Edit History Discussion )

Johnny Isakson: the marketplace. i want to deal with some of the negatives tha some people have about extending the tax credit. the first negative i've heard in a lot of interviews, well isn't all you're really doing is moving forward some sales that are going to take place anyway? well, of course. at's the object. the problem is we don't want

0:40:32 to 0:40:52( Edit History Discussion )

Johnny Isakson: them to take place i 2012. we'd like to move them forward to take place now. we want people back in the business of making decisions that it's a good time to buy a house. secondly, people will say, well, it costs too much. well, let's look at what we've done in two and a half or one and a half years in terms of cost to try and save an ail economy.

0:40:53 to 0:41:14( Edit History Discussion )

Johnny Isakson: we put $85 billion in one night in a.i.g. that's a lot more money than $16 billion. the treasury -- i mean the feral reserve has at one place or another invested over $5 trillion. that's a lot more than $16 billion. the stimulus, which is a two-year stimulus, which is just in its infancy of tryin

0:41:15 to 0:41:37( Edit History Discussion )

Johnny Isakson: some difference, was $737 billion -- $787 billion. the troubled asset assistance program, tarp, which was passed in october of last year, was $700 billion. yet, we have a proposal that's generated 50,000 sales, costs $16 billion, that is about to e, where all of those other programs and trillions of

0:41:38 to 0:41:58( Edit History Discussion )

Johnny Isakson: dollars have only saved a collapse, not regenerated economy. so, mr. president, i come forward today to ask everybody in the senate to think about what's happening. six waoers from now the tax credit sunsets. when it fails, the market again importantly, on consumer confidence.

0:41:59 to 0:42:20( Edit History Discussion )

Johnny Isakson: let's try and slow down the rate of foreclosure. let's help middle america that right now faces difficult times. let's take them out of the newspaper and let's take them back into a buoying economy that has jobs, has growth, has promise for the fure. mr. president, i would submit an extension of the first-time home buyer credit by removing the

0:42:21 to 0:42:41( Edit History Discussion )

Johnny Isakson: means test, raising the income limitation and extending it to midyear. it is good for america, makes good sense for this senate, and i hope we'll find the time before the current bill sunsets to pass it and do it for america. with that, mr. president, i yield the floor absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the

0:42:42 to 0:42:47( Edit History Discussion )

Johnny Isakson: clerk will call the roll.