Dems Use Housing Bill To Help Freshman

It may come as a shock, (a shock!) that someone on Capitol Hill has political motives underlying a policy proposal.

But Democrats have tapped Rep. Baron Hill (D-Ind.), a freshman lawmaker from a conservative swing district, to carry the water on a property tax measure in a larger housing bill. The proposal would allow people who don't itemize their deductions to deduct property tax from on their tax returns.

What this does for Hill is allow him to tout a fiscally conservative sounding tax idea that would help senior citizens in particular, because seniors on fixed incomes often do not itemize their deductions.

And it will come as no surprise that this proposal, co-sponsored by Democratic uber strategist Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.), is driven by a recent poll. According to a poll taken by Greenberg Quinlan Rosner, 54 percent of Americans believe property tax is the biggest tax burden they deal with, ahead of income taxes, gas taxes and sales taxes.

Enter Rep. Hill, who will tout the measure as his own and be able to tell swing voters in southern Indiana that he gave them a tax break.

"Democrats are going to be able to get a property tax provision into a must pass bill - a provision that will appeal to more Americans than any other tax provision, that helps a vulnerable member and that is good policy to boot," said one Democratic House aide involved with the bill.