Affordable Housing Fund Not So Affordable

David Broder wants President Bush to sign on to a bill that would create an Affordable Housing Trust Fund.  But well intentioned measures like this are rarely good ideas.  Government-sponsored housing doesn’t have a particularly excellent track record.  FreedomWorks has noted this as a key vote, and provided a number of reasons why it’s a bad idea.

But let’s look at what the dean of the Washington press corps says.  Broder points to homelessness numbers, which are notoriously difficult to come by (tracking homeless people is not an easy or precise science) and often subject to much debate, and then makes this point:

The other Republican objection was bureaucratic — an argument that this fund should be made part of another, smaller program already running at the Department of Housing and Urban Development. But the other program depends on annual appropriations, while this one would have an assured source of money not subject to the vagaries of the congressional budget process.

Basically, Broder is saying that we not only ought to devote federal funds to this, we ought to take our elected representatives out of the equation in the decision over how and how much to spend on the program. The congressional budget process can be pork-laden and marred by self-interest, but at least it’s a process that offers some chance elected leaders to weigh in on how and what funds are spent.  Broder likes the program so much he thinks it ought to be guaranteed — no matter what elected officials think.

He also cites the support of West Virginia Republican Shelley Capito:

Rep. Shelley Moore Capito, a West Virginia Republican who spoke in favor of the bill, noted that her state, like several others, has a housing trust fund of its own and said she welcomed the aid that the federal fund could provide — with great flexibility on its use.

Sure, but what legislator has ever gone wrong supporting programs that send money back to their home district?   It’s not even remotely surprising that he can find one thrilled to have more federal money sent back to the voters.