Corker Warns Against Using Mortgage Insurance Tax Increase to Fund Payroll Tax Holiday

This story appeared in Bank Digest.

Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., a member of the Senate Banking Committee, has urged House and Senate negotiators not to use a 10-year tax increase on insurance for mortgages guaranteed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac as a “piggy bank” to pay for a temporary extension of the payroll tax holiday through the end of the year. The two-month extension of the payroll tax holiday signed into law in December included an offset, opposed by Corker, that increases the guarantee fees paid by mortgage lenders for home loans backed by government-sponsored enterprises Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. In a letter to the conference committee to extend the temporary payroll tax holiday, Corker asked the conferees not to use the GSE guarantee fee increase in a final bill because the additional fee would reinforce “the impression these enterprises are merely government ‘piggy banks’ to pay for spending  programs, and it allows Congress to continue to shirk our responsibility to find long-term solutions to our country’s debt and spending habits.”