Why Republicans Need to Phase Out HUD--NOT FIX IT Like I Expect Boehner to Propose

Mike Church had an excellent segment on HUD (Housing and Urban Development), another entitlement program created with no Constitutional authority by the federal government. You don't have the right to a house in the United States. If you think you do, you are sadly mistaken. Remember, John Boehner said earlier this week he wants to fix entitlement programs--not phase them out and end them. Here's Mike Church explaining why this entitlement program needs to go. (If you don't have a Sirius radio yet to listen to Mike Church, you are missing an experience that will forever change your conservative thinking--for the better of course.) Here's Mike:

(Audio & Transcript) Mandeville, LA - If you've never heard of HUD, which is an acronym for: Housing and Urban Development, or if you've only heard Leviathan's definition of HUD, then please let Professor Church explain to you what HUD really is. HUD is merely the hand that controls Government subsidized housing development. It is an absolute crock and scam that has done nothing but enslaved blacks into subservient and substandard living conditions because they don't own where they're living. The idea that found itself on the table, next to the diner rolls, was something along the lines of: When HUD comes up for renewal and we decide to do away with it, seeing the war against poverty is an abject failure, we should maybe just give those people the deeds to their prospective dwelling. We already paid for this years ago and the money is gone, we just a soon take the loss while successfully doing away with public housing.

HUD has destroyed many an urban neighborhood replacing them with Soviet style public housing projects that breed nothing but crime, despair and a surmounting contribution to the debt and deficit. For instance, in Buffalo alone $556 Million was spent in recent years with barely anything to show for it. HUD helped cause the mortgage meltdown by subsidizing mortgages that credit-unworthy home buyers couldn't afford, HUD's a poor manager of properties with many already being demolished and has been labeled 'the worst landlord in the United States'. Folks, maybe the solution to this issue is in the free market, sound familiar?

Begin Mike Church Show Transcript

Mike: Somebody was proposing that one of the debates that’s going to come up over the budget is the Housing and Urban Development budget. Now, HUD, as it’s known, now, HUD is in charge of managing and doing maintenance on and assigning who’s going to live in housing projects, and where housing projects are going to be, how much is going to be paid for renovation of housing projects and what have you here. And most of your housing projects, as they’re known today, or housing developments, government subsidized housing developments, are run by HUD, or sometimes there’s a local entity, like in New Orleans it’s called HANO, Housing Authority of New Orleans. It’s an absolute crock and a scam and has enslaved tens, if not a hundred thousand or more, blacks into subservient and substandard living conditions there because they don’t own anything.

Somebody came up with a bright idea, and I actually agree with this. When HUD comes up for renewal, and we decide to kill it – and we should because it’s not carrying out an enumerated power, it is a waste of money, the war against poverty is an abject failure, just admit it, get the hell out of the business – just give people, just give those people that live in those projects now, give them deeds. Just tell them, look. You own 2A; okay? That’s yours. Now you’ve got to paint it. Yeah, you can sell it if you want. Go ahead. Look, we already paid for it years ago. The money is gone. Who cares? Take the loss. The American taxpayer takes the loss. You, ma’am, madam, sir, whoever, you own whatever dwelling it is that you live in, government subsidy, just give it to them. Just give them the deed. And then they become property owners. And yes, they – “Well, Mike, we can’t just let them sell.” Why not? Who cares? Now, you’re not – now, you have to have the understanding that there is no more public housing. Understand this.

AG: Lew Rockwell.

Mike: Understand this. No more public housing. And, oh, it was Lew Rockwell?

AG: Yup.

Mike: You found, oh, okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, it was Ostrowski. That’s right, I was reading Ostrowski the other day at LewRockwell.com. Oh, yeah, and here is what he said: “HUD has destroyed many urban neighborhoods and replaced them with gigantic Soviet-style public housing projects that are breeding grounds for crime and despair.” As a matter of fact, folks, I posted this in yesterday’s Pile of Prep, and it was under the heading, “Here’s an idea of how to lop off one of the heads of the 3.5-trillion-headed Hydra known as the federal government.”
“HUD has destroyed many urban neighborhoods and replaced them with gigantic Soviet-style public housing projects that are breeding grounds for crime and despair. In many cases, such as in my hometown of Buffalo, neighborhoods were destroyed and replaced by nothing!” Blah blah blah blah, blah blah blah blah. “In Buffalo, about $556 million was spent in recent years, and it’s difficult to figure out where it went other than patronage jobs.” This is for HUD now, Housing and Urban Development.

“HUD helped cause the mortgage meltdown by subsidizing mortgages that credit-unworthy homebuyers could not afford. HUD is a poor manager of its properties, many of which are decaying, and many of which have already been demolished. HUD has also been called the worst landlord ... in the United States. The actual solution to the problem....” This is James Ostrowski writing at LewRockwell.com two days ago. “The actual solution to the problem of affordable housing is of course to be found in the free market. Government creates its own demand here as in other areas. First, it inflates the cost of housing through regulation, taxes and zoning. Then, it reduces the income of the poor through taxes, fees, occupational licensure, compulsory schooling and many other regulations. Having manufactured large numbers of poor people and created a shortage of affordable housing for them, it then created HUD....”

So what’s the plan? “It’s time to break the cycle of government failure leading to government programs that fail and create the demand for even more programs. Why abolish HUD and not Education or Agriculture? Mainly, politics. Abolishing food stamps....” is politically unpalatable. So, “Let’s start with HUD,” writes Ostrowski, “and maybe the savings can be used to phase out other federal departments. One step at a time beats sitting on your rear.”

And then his point, he says, is merely to show how to abolish HUD in a politically palatable way. “But, you say, it’s also politically impossible to abolish public housing. However, there’s an easy answer to that concern not available with student loans or food stamps: privatization. Turn ownership of these units over to the current occupants. Don’t evict them; give them a deed. There’s no space here to argue the right and wrong of this proposal. My point is merely to show how to abolish HUD in a politically palatable way.”

Now, if you propose that, what is the argument against that? Look, we’re not kicking them out. Nobody’s getting evicted. They’re not paying rent now anyways. Nobody’s getting – we’re actually giving them property ownership. We are making them private property owners. 1-866-95-PATRIOT. Sounds good to me.

Now, listen to this. You may be able to tell that I have a horrible – no, they don’t have to pay taxes on it. Young Nic wants to know if they’ve got to pay – well, here’s what you do. You give them a graduated tax thing. You say, okay, first three years you can live tax free. And then after that, yeah, then you’ve got to pay the taxes. You can’t just sock them with the taxes. Of course, that’s what Mayor “Moon, Jr.” Landrieu would do, having no business experience whatsoever, not knowing how to create a job outside the Department of the Mayor’s Sanitation Office or whatever. That’s probably what he would say, “[Indiscernible] tax them? Where am I going to get the tax revenue?”

End Mike Church Show Transcript and article

Yeah, it hurts. We have to give them property to make it palatable, but honestly, when you look at housing projects like Cabrini Green in Chicago were built and then torn down and then new government homes were built for these people. It's an endless cycle. Give it away and be done with it, rather than build it, tear it down, and rebuild it.