Your Government In Action: Four-Year-Olds Now Qualify for Homebuyer Credit

Not only can your pre-schoolers now qualify for a first time home-buying loan, but if you've got some more kids in the pipeline they too may be qualify thanks to a helping hand from Senator Christopher Dodd.

They may not be able to cross the street on their own or color within the lines, but many kids qualified for the first-time homebuyer credit.

Due to a loophole and some odd reporting criteria, children as young as 4 received the first-time homebuyer credit that Congress passed last year, according to PoliticsDaily.com. The credit is worth $8,000 and was created to encourage first-time buyers to purchase a home.

More than 500 people have used their children to sign up, with one parent using a 4-year-old to get the credit, the site reported.

These types of claims are among the myriad cases of fraud that have cost the government nearly half a billion dollars, federal investigators told Congress.

Fraudulent claims include people who received the credit but have not purchased homes, who already owned homes, or who were in the country illegally. More worrying, numerous IRS employees have applied for the credit who should not have.

Chalk up another success for big gubmint.

Meanwhile, on the heels of this news comes word this program will likely be extended. Wonderful.

The temporary program was created by Congress in 2008 to jolt the weakened housing market and was renewed and expanded in 2009 by the $787 billion stimulus bill. This week Sens. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) and Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.) began a push to expand the credit to all homebuyers and extend the deadline, now set for Nov. 30th, to July 2010.

Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.), chairman of the subcommittee, said that 1.4 million families have claimed nearly $10 billion in credits, but that the speed of implementing the program meant policing fraud was at first unacceptably poor. "We want to and we need to stop this fraud and abuse," he said.

Good luck with that. Really instills confidence these idiots can run our healthcare system, doesn't it?

I wonder how deep the tentacles from ACORN are into the scam?