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Thursday, July 24, 2008
Fannie and Freddie Still in the Political Mix
FOXBusiness
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are pulling out of the upcoming political conventions but still paying for big budget booze bashes to lobby politicians.
FOX Business correspondent Adam Shapiro broke the news that the two mortgage giants, who are about to receive blank-check-taxpayer-backing through the U.S. Treasury, still plan to spend an undisclosed amount of money on parties to wine and dine Washington bigwigs when the Democrats meet in Denver and the Republicans meet in Minneapolis for their political conventions.
A Fannie Mae (FNM) spokesperson told Shapiro, “We will no longer have a role in the Democrat or Republican convention events including the housing industry reception. We will fulfill financial obligations that were made previously but we will not make any additional commitments going forward.”
Doug Duvall, a spokesman for Freddie Mac (FRE) said, “We committed to sponsor these events a year ago. Freddie Mac will not have a presence at the conventions.”
Shapiro asked Duvall how much Freddie Mac was spending to lobby politicians at the political party parties to which Duvall responded, “We won’t discuss that, why should we?”
The parties are important meetings according to other sponsors like the National Association of Realtors and the National Association of Home Builders.
The Independent Community Bankers of America [ICBA], which is also a sponsor, issued a statement saying “Homeownership is something that should be celebrated in America. What better venues to highlight the benefits of homeownership than the respective national party conventions.”
Shapiro asked the ICBA spokesman if that’s the case then why not invite all 300 million Americans to the party instead of the 400 select politicians and political party representatives who received invitations.
The ICBA has not responded to that question.
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Sure, we know some of you are saying the term "marriage penalty" is redundant. In fact, of all the costs associated with getting married (have you seen the cost of a wedding cake lately?), the marriage penalty can be the worst.
Here's how it works: Mr. and Mrs. Right walk down the aisle in wedded bliss and suddenly they¿re a two-income household. If both make roughly the same amount of money, they can be pushed into a higher tax bracket. That's bad, since the higher the bracket, the higher the tax. So, if both were single, they'd end up writing two smaller checks to the tax man that, if combined, would add up to less than the giant check they write in a state of wedded bliss.
Is that fair? We're not touching that, but there is a flip side that few people talk about. The marriage penalty only kicks in if both members of the couple make close to the same amount of money. If there's a big disparity in pay, there's actually a tax advantage. Call it the marriage bonus.
And, it¿s important to remember that there are other financial benefits, such as lower life-insurance rates or health care premiums, that can make up for the extra tax couples pay. So don't let Uncle Sam stop you from saying, "I do."
