Forget the uninsured, let's help the homeless!

As an exercise, let’s apply the Health Care Reform logic to home ownership. I think that we can all agree that having a place to live is as basic a “human right” as having health care.

According to HUD:
There are 3.5 million homeless people in America.
Over 32% of Americans don’t own the homes where they do live.

That’s over 96 million Americans who don’t own the homes they live in, and who could be tossed out on the street at any time. Added to the 3.5 million homeless Americans, that’s about 100 million people who need homes.

That’s 100 million Americans whose rights are being violated.

Obviously what is needed is a huge federal program to make sure that every American family unit or single adult owns their own home. This means that people with lower incomes will have homes given to them – at taxpayer expense

People who invested in real estate and already own more than one home should be forced to sell the additional homes – at rates set by the government, of course – or have them taken away and given to the needy, because there are a finite number of homes available, and nobody really needs to have more than one home. These people can’t really even complain because they will still have a home, and may even get to choose which one they retain – hey, it’s not our fault that they chose to invest in real estate, instead of investing in something else.

People who own “Mansions” will need to be assessed with a special tax, because their “Cadillac” lifestyles are more than they “need”, and unfair to others who live in smaller or more poorly located homes.

Since many young adults traditionally don’t buy homes, parents (or their employers, or the taxpayers) would be obliged to provide housing for children until the age of 26.

Anyone who doesn’t own a home will be subject to fines.

Members of the House and Senate, the President, and the Vice-President would be exempt, of course, and home taxes in Nebraska would be guaranteed to never go up.

We could even claim that the bill would be financed through savings from current HUD programs (such as housing subsidies), the elimination of the costly Fanny May and Freddie Mac programs, and by confiscating all student loan repayments in perpetuity. We could also claim that this would be a 50% increase in the property tax base – since it would be a 50% increase in the number of people paying property taxes. We would justify this by pointing out that only two thirds of Americans currently own their homes and pay property taxes on them (never mind that landlords pay property taxes, this is the kind of annoying “assertion” that will only be brought up by Fox news and other “nutcase” and “fringe” opponents of progress), so getting all Americans into their own homes would increase the property tax base by 50%.

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Personally, I'm a guy who invested many years of my life into a military career. I never made more than $30k a year until I retired from the military, and my retirement check is less than $700 a month, but I actually chose to return to active duty in my early 30s because I weighed my options and decided that the medical benefits package made up for the fact that the salary wasn't going to be enough to buy a home or invest heavily.
I "invested" in lifelong medical care through my employer. Yes, through my employer - which just happens to be the government.
Now I see people who made other choices wanting to get the same medical benefits that I get, but to do it at taxpayer expense, without giving up 17 years of their life (and acquiring a 40% disability) in the service of our nation. They tell me that I am not losing anything, since I will keep my health care (although I may end up being taxed on my benefits, depending on how mush they decide my employer contribution is). I tell them that it is the same as if a housing program allowed them to continue to stay in their home, and continue to pay their mortgage, while the government gave me the house across the street for free - they aren't losing anything, except when they look at what they pay for something that someone else is getting free.
If it's going to be government subsidized healthcare for all, then I think I am owed a different compensation package for my military career - say about five times the salary/retirement. I'm not holding my breath though, because Congress and the President don't care about fairness or equity for vets.