Ford UFO Files

-2-
5TH DISTRICT RADIO TAPE - MAY 18, 1966
For example, a family with an income of $250 a month could live in a
$100-a-month apartment and pay just $62.50 a month on the rent. You and I
would pick up the tab for the remaining $37.50. Or let's say the family rented
a $200-a-month apartment. They would pay $62.50 toward the rent; and we would
pay $137.50.
Robert Weaver, secretary of the Housing and Urban Development Department,
says he would like to see the program expanded to include middle income families.
He said this recently despite the fact the House last year refused to make
funds available to start the program until FHA changed the regulations to make
sure the subsidies would go only to low-income families.
Now, what's wrong with the rent subsidies program? Shouldn't the affluent
help the poor?
The thing that's wrong with a rent subsidy is that it runs contrary to
everything this country has ever stood for--individual pride, thrift and
initiative, and the desire of every American to some day own a home of his own.
And supporters of this scheme agree that tax subsidies will be going to middle-
income families, not just to the poor.
What incentive will a family have to save money and buy a home if all it
has to do is set aside 25 per cent of the monthly income for rent and let the
taxpayers pay the rest of the shot on a nice apartment?
And the taxpayers should ask themselves not only that question but still
others: What sense does it make to launch a big-spending program that could
cost up to $20 billion over the next 40 years? Why should this nation plunge
into a rent subsidy scheme at a time when it is spending a billion dollars a
month on the Vietnam War?