Georgia Congresswoman Majorie Taylor Greene (R) recently proposed a bill ending the vampiric federal tax on profits for all home sales, and in reporting on the move, Newsweek offered keen observers a powerful example of sloppy reporting and normalcy bias.
The facts of the story are fairly simple, and, as Newsweek’s Giulia Carbornaro notes, have been catalyzed by Greene’s Thursday move.
“Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Republican from Georgia, introduced a bill on Thursday that, if passed, would eliminate federal taxes on home sales.
‘No more taxing the American dream,’ she wrote on X, formerly Twitter. ‘Families who work hard, build equity, and sell their homes shouldn't be punished with a massive tax bill.’
The bill, known as the No Tax on Home Sales Act, would eliminate the federal capital gains tax on the sale of primary residences—a measure that the Republican congresswoman said would help homeowners struggling with affordability issues and encourage mobility in the U.S. housing market.”
So far so good, as far as the facts are concerned.
But then Carbonaro strays, implying that there is a high-demand housing market, when this is not the case.
Greene’s bill, writes Carbonaro:
“…would not apply to home flippers or real estate investors, who have been blamed in recent years for their role in reducing inventory across the country and bringing up prices.”
One might offer the Newsweek reporter an out, allowing for the possibility that she meant to tell readers that, when prices have risen, part of that price increase has been caused by house-flippers, but that doesn’t seem to be the implication. The implication is that home prices recently have risen.
Which is not the case.
As the US Census reports (and that reporting, itself, is unconstitutional, by the way) new home prices hit a steep downward slide starting in late April, and, seen over the longer term, new home sales as of May, 2025 were 7.84 percent lower than they were in May of 2020, during the COVID hysteria.
Additionally, Carbonaro’s writing insinuates that home-flippers are at fault for what she erroneously claims are higher prices. But home-flippers not only have been working in a declining new-home market for over five years, their activity does not necessarily increase home prices, because older homes and new homes both work to fill consumer demand.
Demand for homes is lackluster, but Newsweek avoids that reality with a throwaway line about home-flippers as said home-flippers are treated in Greene’s legislation.
And this treatment – leaving them out of the tax relief – not only is unequal treatment in an otherwise laudable bill, it hints at something more essential.
This shows us that many people assume it is alright for government to tax people merely for selling their home.
It indicates to us that many Americans actually think it is ethically acceptable for the US government – or any level of government – to DEMAND money from others who sell something, that agents of the state automatically have a claim on some of that.
Which is, of course, the attitude of the predator, the slave-master, the thief.
“Roughly 1 in 3 homeowners in America has built up more equity than the federal capital gains tax exclusion for single filers protects. That means nearly 29 million households could face a tax of up to 20% on the profit from their home sale—simply for staying put and watching their home values rise.”
In other words, the predators wait, and watch, and anticipate a sale and the ripe meat they will demand, the flesh in the form of tax money.
Greene’s legislation would bring about a dramatic change from that status quo, and help loosen the stasis for many who would like to sell, but fear the tax impact.
As Greene’s press release states:
“Currently, the IRS allows an exclusion of up to $250,000 ($500,000 for joint filers) in capital gains from home sales, but those limits haven’t been updated since 1997. As home prices have risen, more middle-class homeowners are being hit with capital gains taxes that were originally intended for wealthy investors.”
Wealthy or not, each of us has a right to the fruits of his labor. No rationale or excuse from Washington can excuse the hubris of telling others that they must cough up portions of their profits to the government.
Regardless of the outcome of Greene’s bill, her introduction of it offers us a key opportunity to see reality in realty – and in taxation, itself. Taxation is theft, and the less often that happens the better.
Any deviation from that principle is unprincipled, and leans towards your further enslavement.
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