Stupid Tax Breaks

Oh, joy.... The Senate wants to reinflate the housing bubble.

The Senate on Wednesday voted to expand the economic stimulus package with a tax credit for homebuyers of up to $15,000, a provision championed by Republicans as addressing a root cause of the recession.

The downside is, it has to be used to buy your primary residence. The upside is, maybe I can sell "my" house to my wife - I purchased it before we married - and get $15,000 in free money. I'll have to read the fine print.

This one should be fun, as well:

On Tuesday, the Senate approved a tax incentive for car buyers, sponsored by Senator Barbara Mikulski, Democrat of Maryland, that would allow the deduction of sales tax and loan interest on purchases made this year.

Would this work: I sell you a car at 25% interest. At the end of the year if you've made all your payments on time, I give you 15% of your interest as a credit toward your remaining principal balance and adjust your future interest to market rates. I end up with a great rate of return on the loan, you end up with a 15% discount on your car, and the government picks up the entire tab!

What other genius ideas are coming down the pike?

It Only Seems Fair....

Joe Lieberman writes,

[Chancellor of D.C. public schools, Michelle Rhee] seeks to reward teachers for good performance. While this is common, indeed intuitive, in most professions, it is considered a revolutionary concept in public education. Most union-negotiated teacher contracts base compensation on seniority. While this approach offers job security, it does not reward teachers for inspiring enthusiasm or promoting achievement in the classroom.

Fair enough. So when can we expect Joe to ask Senator Harry Reid to strip him of his seniority, and to introduce legislation authorizing recall votes against U.S. Senators and tying Senate salaries to the extent to which Senators "inspire enthusiasm" or "promote achievement"?