Shut the door on this housing plan

David Broder is a good, readable, and liberal wordsmith. His Oct. 18 column, "Putting keys to affordable homes…" promotes a new bill passed by the U.S. House. It seems modest, adding 1.5 million badly (his word) needed housing units over 10 years.

This bill relates to establishing rental units and first-time home buyers with an assist on down payments. Broder emphasizes this would help people with "severe" housing burdens (his quote). The $800 million to $1 billion a year distribution would come from 1.2 percent charge on the value of mortgages held by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac agencies, plus similar monies from the FHA.

Didn't we just have a mortgage problem with loans/grants recently? Besides, this reminds me of our FICA payroll system of matching employee and employer fees. This new trust fund would just grow like FICA fees have grown.

Broder challenges the Republican arguments that taxes would accrue from some homeowners to benefit other homeowners. He is also worried about the "vagaries" of the congressional budget process for a current smaller program already running in HUD.

The bill is shy about 23 votes to override a veto.

The crowning touch to this piece is the last paragraph: "...housing is an important to people as food and drink -- and life itself."

Well, we all want our citizens to have good housing but does Broder also want trust funds set up for food, drink and life itself? Probably yes.

Jack Donohue

Lombard