There are several useful things that manufactured housing advocates who are sincere about advancing industry production that they could be presenting to Trump 2.0 Administration officials. The article that follows in Part I from the Daily Signal to MHProNews by Heritage.org’s senior policy analyst David Ditch will be followed in Part II with some of those arguments. Will the Manufactured Housing Institute (MHI) be publicly and robustly presenting those items? Based on the history of most of the 21st century, don’t hold your breath, but let’s look and keep an open mind and open eyes, shall we?
Part I
Commentary
4 Charts Show Why Congress Must Embrace Spending Restraint
David Ditch | February 07, 2025
This year, Congress is expected to pass at least one major legislative package through what is known as the reconciliation process, which enables easier passage for certain types of budgetary changes.
The top goal for reconciliation will be extending and improving on the success of the 2017 tax cuts, which were a big success for America. Businesses created jobs and workers enjoyed strong wage growth thanks to the better tax code, at least until the disastrous policies of the Biden administration whipped up the inflation crisis.
It’s vital for Congress to pair pro-growth tax cuts with pro-growth spending reforms. Not only is every dollar of spending guaranteed to lead to a dollar of taxes down the line, but the federal budget itself needs a serious overhaul.
In fiscal year 2024, the federal government ran a $1.8 trillion deficit.
Historically, a deficit of over 6% of the size of the economy would only be caused by a major war or a hard recession.
However, there is no excuse for the sorry state of the budget today. Washington has allowed spending to grow unchecked in many areas and refuses to prioritize its core duties.
Despite what left-wing activists claim, tax revenue as a share of the economy is right around the historical average. The budget gap isn’t about the IRS failing to shake people down hard enough, but about Uncle Sam being too generous with other people’s money.
The numbers involved in the federal budget are usually too large for the human brain to comprehend.
To put in perspective how out of whack the budget is, let’s look at it as though the United States were a family.
A typical U.S. household has an income of $80,610. If they budgeted like Washington does, they would have spent $110,637 last year and put $30,027 on the national credit card while already having $564,897 in outstanding debt.
If a friend or family member was in that situation, you would tell them to take their finances seriously before they go broke. The same is true on a national scale, except that if the federal government goes bust, everyone will pay the price.
The large deficit in 2024 isn’t an outlier. The latest projections from the Congressional Budget Office show that unless something changes, deficits will stay above $1.5 trillion for the foreseeable future and begin to exceed $2 trillion per year by 2030.
Ignoring the problem will only make things worse.
One of the most worrying budget trends is the explosive growth of interest payments on the national debt.
Congress was lulled into a false sense of security by years of ultra-low interest rates and allowed the national debt to pile up. However, now that interest rates have gone up across the board, America is paying a heavy price.
This leads to a vicious cycle.
First, interest payments eat up more and more tax revenue. Second, deficits increase, leading to more debt. Third, a larger debt leads to larger interest payments, and so on, and so on.
The only way to get a handle on this is for Congress to dramatically reduce deficit spending.
A combination of smaller deficits and economic growth would eventually bring interest payments down to earth even if the budget is never balanced–although a budget framework would speed up the process quite a bit.
The budget reconciliation process provides a vital opening for getting federal spending under control. Priorities for Congress include:
- Eliminating the misnamed Inflation Reduction Act, including both regular spending and spending done through the tax code, which increases deficits for the sake of the Green New Deal.
- Reforming healthcare programs, which are now the largest part of the budget. Changing how Medicare pays for treatments, ending the provider tax scam in Medicaid, and unwinding Obamacare would lower deficits and bolster Medicare’s trust fund.
- Reforming welfare programs, including the elimination of loopholes and benefit expansions initiated during the Biden administration.
In the coming months, expect that special interests who benefit from the swampy status quo to twist arms in Congress to prevent these spending cuts from happening.
The best way for Americans to ensure their representatives do the right thing is for their voices to be louder than Washington D.C.’s lobbyists.
If Congress thinks the public will hold them accountable, there will be a fighting chance for fiscal responsibility.
David Ditch is a senior policy analyst in budget policy in the Grover M. Hermann Center for the Federal Budget at The Heritage Foundation.
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Part II – Additional Information with More MHProNews Analysis and Commentary in Brief
Imagine for the next few minutes if the Manufactured Housing Institute (MHI) was busy trying to authentically “Grow your business” by “Elevating” manufactured housing and “Expanding” affordable (attainable? Ugh) mainstream manufactured home ownership in “Partnership” with HUD and federal officials.
1) Ditch has outlined some of the sobering aspects of federal spending and why it has to be brought under control rapidly. Per HUD’s 2025 budget in brief request (under Joe Biden’s term in office) by prior HUD Secretary Marcia Fudge was the following remarks.
Goals Increasing the housing supply, Lowering homeownership costs, Supporting low-income renters, Preventing homelessness, and Strengthening HUD’s internal capacity.
At HUD, the heart of our work is creating strong, sustainable,
inclusive communities and quality homes for all.We must continue to commit the resources necessary to alleviate
the housing crisis our Nation has faced for decades.
2) The first two quotes are apparently more aspirational than actual, because when ex-HUD Secretary Fudge admits that “We must continue to commit resources necessary to alleviate the housing crisis our Nation has faced for decades,” she was admitting the decades of failure at the agency she led for much of the Biden-Harris (D) years.
More from Fudge’s remarks:
this crisis affects us all, and it limits our Nation’s potential.
True enough.
Fudge continued.
The 2025 President’s Budget emphasizes HUD’s commitment to carrying out our mission and
prioritizes efforts to:
Support Historically Underserved Communities and Equitable Community Development;
Increase Supply of and Access to Affordable Housing;
Address Homelessness with the Urgency it Requires;
Promote Homeownership Opportunities and Wealth Building;
Advance Sustainable Communities, Climate Resilience, and Environmental Justice; and
Strengthen HUD’s Internal Capacity to Deliver Its Mission.
3) During September of the first year (9.7.2021) of the Biden-Harris time in office, be their term justified or not, HUD’s Pamela Blumenthal and Regina Gray said the following (MHProNews note: with the close of the Biden-Harris admin, this article link has moved on the HUD website, but MHProNews has preserved the article at the link here and on MHLivingNews at this link here).
Regulatory barriers – “federal, state, and local” – “contribute to the extensive mismatch between supply and need has worsened over time,” wrote Blumenthal and Gray. Where was MHI on that challenge? Did they cite this useful report?
No.
4) Let’s hit the highlights of what MHI could be pitching if they so desired. In no particular order of importance and not limited to the following are these useful points.
a) Because manufactured housing routinely doesn’t require federal subsidies, and conventional housing has been soaking up billions upon billions for decades, MHI could be pushing for the full, routine, and robust implementation of the Manufactured Housing Improvement Act of 2000 (e.g.: MHIA, MHIA 2000, 2000 Reform Act, 2000 Reform Law) as MHARR has by pushing the notion of industry bottlenecks.
b) Because federal spending needs to be cut, manufactured housing is a logical solution. Besides, the math is clear. Taxpayer subsidies has never, and can never, close the gap for affordable housing via subsidized housing.
New in depth report reveals facts, math, and evidence that make modern manufactured homes an essential part of HUD and local planning https://patch.com/florida/lakeland/can-t-solve-u-s-affordable-housing-crisis-without-factory-built-homes
c) To improve the economy, millions of more inherently affordable housing units are needed reasonably near where people work. Doing so, per researchers, would boost the gross domestic product some $2 trillion dollars annually. Manufactured housing is the natural fulfillment for that need, the key that unlocks the door to improved productivity that could be two trillion dollars annually.
5) More productivity. Lower costs for HUD. Authentically solving the problem that HUD is supposed to be addressing instead of just talking about it. Add to that building wealth for low-income families currently struggling to make ends meet and a robust set of arguments exists for Secretary E. Scott Turner and others in the federal government to turn more to HUD Code manufactured housing.
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By L.A. “Tony” Kovach – for MHProNews.com.
Tony earned a journalism scholarship and earned numerous awards in history and in manufactured housing.
For example, he earned the prestigious Lottinville Award in history from the University of Oklahoma, where he studied history and business management. He’s a managing member and co-founder of LifeStyle Factory Homes, LLC, the parent company to MHProNews, and MHLivingNews.com.
This article reflects the LLC’s and/or the writer’s position and may or may not reflect the views of sponsors or supporters.
Connect on LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/latonykovach
