Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-LA) proposed his first bill this week: the Israel Security Supplemental Appropriations Act, 2024 which would provide $14.3 billion (over one year) to support Israel in its war against Hamas. The bill would be funded by reappropriating funds originally targeted for the IRS in the Inflation Reduction Act.
Earlier this month, the IRS announced initiatives to use the funds to “pursue high-income, high-wealth individuals who do not pay overdue tax bills and complex partnerships.”
After the Speaker introduced the new bill, Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) made a claim that made the “typical family” look a lot like one of the IRS’s “high-wealth individuals.”
“When President Trump left office,” Stefanik wrote, “the typical family could afford to buy a home valued at $725,000. Today, that same median-income family can only afford a home priced $365,000.” Stefanik blames “Bidenomics” for “crushing hardworking Americans.”
When President Trump left office, the typical family could afford to buy a home valued at $725,000.
— Elise Stefanik (@EliseStefanik) October 30, 2023
Today, that same median-income family can only afford a home priced $365,000.#Bidenomics is crushing hardworking Americans & makes it harder to live the American Dream.
Stefanik’s claim has received blowback from many of her constituents who find her numbers dubious. The Congresswoman is also taken to task for failing to cite a data source. A few attentive X users ran the numbers and calculated that while a Congresswoman’s salary — $174K — would enable such a purchase, the “typical family” was not able to slide into a $725k home during the Trump administration.
WRONG! The pmt. would be ~$4.1k incl. taxes, and PMI @ 4.5%. Assumes a median income family has $7.25k layin' around for 10% down. Lenders want pmt. to be <28% of mo. gross income. So, the median income would be $14k/mo. or $175k/year. That's your salary of $174k! @CommunityNotes pic.twitter.com/RZqaLQSUny
— Blue_Green_Builder (@Kelly_I_Thomas) October 30, 2023
Note: According to the U.S. Census: The median household income (in 2021 dollars) from 2017 to 2021 in the U.S. was $69,021.
According to the official New York State government website, approximately 82 percent of New York State (51 out of the 62 counties, excluding New York City) list a residential median sale price below $370,000. (The outlier is Westchester County which has a $770,000 median sale price.)
