Hey, remember when I praised McCain’s housing stance? Forget it Update: Latest Senate subprime boondoggle passes, 84-12; Update: Roll call vote added
Scroll down for updates…roll call vote added
I knew I should have withheld comment. Last month, I said something nice about John McCain’s tough-sounding stand against federal housing bailouts. Should have known better. Maverick schmaverick:
Senator John McCain, who drew criticism last month after he warned against broad government action to solve the deepening mortgage crisis, pivoted Thursday and called for the government to help qualified homeowners with subprime mortgages refinance and get federally guaranteed 30-year mortgages.
“There is nothing more important than keeping alive the American dream to own your home, and priority number one is to keep well-meaning, deserving home owners who are facing foreclosure in their homes,” Mr. McCain said in Brooklyn, where he held a round-table discussion with small-business owners.
Mr. McCain, an Arizona Republican, said his plan would apply only to people who have subprime mortgages on their primary residences who could show that they would be able to meet the terms of a new, 30-year fixed-rate mortgage. He also called for the Department of Justice to investigate the lending industry.
Mr. McCain did not mention how much his plan would cost, but his economic advisers were scheduled to brief reporters later in the day.
Here’s the transcript of his remarks.
Bottom line cost to the taxpayers: At least $3 to $10 billion.
At least.
As for this statement– “There is nothing more important than keeping alive the American dream to own your home”–I can think of a few things more important:
Rewarding thrift. Getting government out of the business of shielding individuals and corporations from the consequences of their actions. Refraining from interventions that will only encourage mortgage defaults.
For starters.
***
Update: The latest Senate subprime boondoggle passed this afternoon, 84-12. I’ll post the roll call vote when it goes up.
Rick Moran weighs in:
The Senate passed a bill that is supposed to deal with the crisis in foreclosures today by an 84-12 margin.
The only problem is that it doesn’t deal with foreclosures which means House Democrats are going to have a field day loading it up with goodies for deadbeats.
Maybe they’ll give a tax break to people who trash their foreclosed on homes before skedaddling.
The Senate bill would reward home builders who overbuilt during the housing boom while giving speculators who purchase these homes a huge tax break.
If I sound a little skeptical it’s because this is an election year and Congress must be seen as “doing something about the problem” when the best course is probably letting the economy wring out the failures and deadbeats while rewarding those who didn’t go off half cocked during the boom.
Yep.
***
Here’s the roll call vote:
See what others have said
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- silent E speaks - Conservatively Speaking from Western Waukesha County » John McWaffle….
- Political Buzz » McCain tackles the economy
- shyspeak.net · McCain’s Housing Flip-Flop
- Never Mind… « Firearms & Freedom
- McCain flips on subprime
- The Senate has Failed Again « Truth, Lies and In Between
- Michelle Malkin » Bailout Culture
- Idiot Senate « Truth, Lies and In Between
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I should have bought the big house I couldn’t afford.
Screwed again!!!!!!
Actually the foreclosed homes do help keep alive the dream of owning ones own home. They are cheaper and more affordable.
What about the American dream not to pay taxes to support Socialist giveaway schemes?
Unfortunately for me, I was taught to take responsibility for my actions.
Don’t remind me. Iowa is imposing a 20 percent increase in its Sales Tax to pay for its “public” schools. Not one word about what I get in return. I would settle for accountability.
Granted McCain is not exactly Milton Friedman but he is still preferable to Obama and Clinton. I look at it this way: If someone steals my wallet and takes 20 dollars from the onehundred dollars that was in my wallet, that is still better than having someone steal all the money in the wallet. Sadly that is the difference we will have in November.
McCain continues “…therefore, I will redistribute the wealth of your neighbors to compensate for your stupid decisions…”
No, he really didn’t say that, but his actions speak louder than words.
Why don’t liberals put their money where their mouths are and pick up the tab for these people? C’mon Hollywood, you can afford it. Susan? Tim? Barbara? Jane? Sean? anyone?
Yeah, I thought so.
And there’s always the old chestnut: “Q. How can you tell when a politician is lying? A. His lips are moving.”
Truer words were never spoken.
Being a Budget Analyst for the Air Force I will see that and raise you $15 to $20 billion of a tax bill by the time the Federal Government is done meddling with this issue turning it from a short term financial crisis into a long term major disaster to the national economy. Despite what our enemies say overseas as goes the US economy so goes the entire planet’s economy the domino effect of this is not going to be pretty.
This guy is sickening – every time I start wondering if maybe he’s not all that bad (relatively speaking), he once again just does a complete 180 and contradicts himself. Time and time again he proves that he can NOT be trusted in any way shape or form. The term ‘pathological liar’ comes to mind.
McCain you idiot, you are NOT a democratic party member, you are a Republican! Sort it out.
We are is so much touble with these three liberal socialists.
Hmmm… not so sure I have a problem with this one..
It does NOT give money to banks, or builders, or even people who got a bad loan…
Its more like a VHA loan refinance… they will still have to get a new loan, and ensure they can pay it. Just gonna help with those ballooning interest rates by giving them a bit more leverage to get a fixed rate loan.
Of all the plans so far, this is the least objectionable by far.
Any idea how much of the increase can be attributed to schooling illegal aliens?
MM…is that a glamor shot…albeit with nose plug?
As i stated in the post about Juan Hernandez and McAmnsety…i was almost thinking of thinking about trying to vote for JM to keep the other commies out of office. then he so heartedly reminds me of what a socialist he is..nope, he does not get my vote.
Still waiting for “none of the above” to show up on the ballot – my guess he would win handily.
It was clear to me that’s what he was proposing in the first speech.
Hmm… Bob Barr?
Romeo13,
And where exactly will the money come from? What? This will not involve any money, just backing for loans? Riiiight.
Any new program by the government WILL COST THE TAXPAYER. You can take that to the bank.
Especially after all the pork is larded on
It will be interesting to see what an Empty Repbulican Convention will look like.
Just a glimpse of what we can expect as he goes out of his way to placate his “friends” on the left.
Rick, Rick, you’re so negative. The evil lending barons deserve to have their property trashed – after all it’s their fault for offering people with iffy credit a chance to purchase a home and make life better for their families. What a dreadul thing to do! Thank goodness Michelle Obama recognizes the evils of mortgage banking and did her best to talk any working poor out of trying to better their lives.
What’s in it for us,the people that pay our bills.Are we going to be left out because we do right?What’s our cut?
Subprimer/Deadbeats= Free lunch
Honest/Hardworking= Get it up the gazzop.
The moral, docflash, is to be irresponsible and lazy. Strangely enough, that pretty much describes the young entitlement generation now reaching voting age.. we’re in for some serious problems in the coming decades.
I’m moving to the Norfolk area May 1st. Darn. Well, I still have time to cancel the townhouse and get a detached 6 BR home with 5 acres. Make a few payments and then hold my hand out. Sure to work! Seriously though, I hear the victim families of the Va. Tech. shootings have settled with the state of Virginia for compensation. Now, I have all the sympathy in the world for the families, but, dang, if I want to pay for that too. The way we’re going, I’ll be broke myself, taking care of all the “victims” in the country. Then I’ll be a “victim”. Hmm. Perfect for socialism’s goal.
What if I didn’t get a sub-prime mortgage? Can I still get some free money?
I think that those who receive bailouts should be taxed higher to offset their stupidity.
So Michelle, you and I and all the others who have faithfully paid our mortgages through tough times and good are to be ignored, and the idiots who overspent, negotiated poorly will get help. Thanks alot, all you Senators are nothing but……. well…. you know what I’d call them!
Um, I don’t think Rick Moran is writing for AP.
The most troubling part of the proposal is the use of the term “deserving”. This could mean just about anything. It will wind up being those with the best sob story getting relief. The use of nebulous and undefined terms is what always dooms any mortgage proposal and this is no different.
Someone should suggest to Barney Frank that as long as he’s thinking up ways to give dough to deadbeats, that he ought to dovetail the money into converting those properties into HUD units. Until (and unless) the loan gets repaid, let HUD own the house.
Think of it as dispersed projects.
ps. for a fast view of the “Calamity”, check this link that I copied from Exurban Nation:
http://www.market.defaultresearch.com/market/ca.php
When you read the charts, notice the % of households involved. Like 6% in San Bernadino, or near 8% in Riverside County.
The real take-away should be that the foreclosure mess is a fiction of the Democrats whose chief interest (for the past 8 years) has been to claim the Bush Presidency has been economic hell.
They’re lying, but they like to do that.
My house and all my inherited belongings burned to the ground in the Hayman fire.
The FIRE was STARTED by a GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEE.
I can NOT get help. Nope.
Instead, the government ( the BLM) STOLE an additional 30 acres of my mountain property saying I didn’t have a proper “patented deed” ( although I owned it and I had paid taxes on it for 25 years){ this is the second time they condemned and took land from me}
I’ve been quiet and struggling with this for a few years on my own, but now….
WHERE THE HELL IS MY ASSISTANCE?
I just want:
MY LAND BACK.
SEED MY BURNT PROPERTY!
Heck, maybe I ought to have the gov’t build ME a new home, they burned mine down.
Oh, I agree, but you gotta understand that they are going to do SOMETHING, and this is the least objectionable plan I’ve heard so far.
VHA loans only guarentee a few % points of the actualy value of the loan. It helps you get a loan when you have little or no down payment, as the lender is guarenteed at least that money if it defaults.
Government money is ONLY involved if the loan defaults… and then only a farily small amount.
For the business? it makes the loan a bit safer so they will hopefully be willing to renegotiate.
For the homeowner? If the house has lost equity in the latest mess, it will help if they have to pay off a loan worth more than the house…. once again, helping to get these loans off a floating rate to a fixed rate (which is the crux of the problem).
McCains plan may be the least objectionable, but it’s still objectionable in my book. I don’t WANT to make my neighbors house payments, or his health insurance payments, or his grocery bill, or his car insurance. If I wanted to be a socialist, I’d move to Europe for Christs’ sake. Does everybody realize we are about 2 election cycles away from a socialist state?
Juan Hernandez must have a sub-prime mortgage.
As long as those restrictions were agreed upon in the final legislation and actually enforced, I’d call this another “hold your nose” opportunity.
We’ve already seen what happens to Wall Street when the
“Screw Them”“Suck It Up” prescription is attempted; it had a nervous breakdown, which the Fed was barely able to contain through substantial prime rate cuts coupled with other actions it hasn’t taken since the Great Depression.The central problem is that of economic interconnectivity: Wall Street sniffles, and the rest of the economy catches the flu. That’s why you get 84-12 votes in the Senate to do something; it’s not just about the individual, but the ripple effect on society as a whole.
Macroeconomic considerations aside, in the USA we’re prosperous and generous enough that we’re able to “carry” individuals, companies and even industries which made foolish decisions or otherwise ended up in a fix. This is one of our noble qualities, and gives lie to the common leftist caricaturization of a capitalist society as intrinsically heartless and soulless.
The trick is to balance compassion with pragmatism. I think that what McCain is trying to do is to find that balance. The terms in the quoted passage above do not “reward” people who engaged in foolish, high-risk loans for investment properties, and would at least by implication use some kind of means test to ensure that primary homeowners can still make mortgage payments in the event of a restructuring.
Bottom line, as a taxpayer I’d rather carry some “dead weight” in the economy than to increase the risk of sending it into a stall if not a tailspin based on my particular notions of “fairness” or “justice.” Indeed, in a way I’m already doing just that:
- I’m paying Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid taxes because of the failure or inability of many people to adequately prepare for their retirement or to provide for their own health care. Why don’t they just Suck It Up, the greedy parasites?
- I’m paying for things like welfare and food stamps and methadone treatments at homeless shelters because of the failure or inability of some people to prepare themselves to make it own their own in the free market, or because they made idiotic decisions. Let them Suck It Up, or let them eat cake!
- I pay for things like hospitalization costs for victims of violent crime who can’t afford it when they get mugged, stabbed or shot in bad neighborhoods. Why should I? Why don’t they just Suck It Up and move or something?
I don’t recall who said it originally, but I am a subscriber to the philosophy that you can judge the character of a society by the way it treats its least fortunate members. And yes, even with the inevitable abuse of government programs to help such people, I still think it better to operate under the saying, “There but for the grace of God go I” than “I’ve got mine, so f*ck you.”
Who get’s the money then?
If the government is involved in the distribution of money and or loans be assured it will hurt the honest taxpayers and fill the coffers of more bureaucracy. This entire problem is better left for free enterprise to fix.
I guess I’ll just have to kiss my dream of owning a house goodbye. This will just keep house prices artificially high a lot longer, pricing most of the rest of us (non home owners) out of the market.
This is discrimination against renters.
Had I known I could buy a home with no money down and no income documentation, I would have.
Now I’m stuck in this apartment.
It’s not my fault I’m uninformed.
I think I deserve long term rent subsidies.
McCain is a lying, clueless politician.
Gutless.
Yep, the usual “Non-Voters.”
A vote for or against this legislation would tell the American voter SO much about a Presidential candidate’s view on personal responsibility and public welfare policy. All three are too gutless to let their true positions (and I suspect which way all three lean) known.
The three of them were too busy appearing on American Idol tonight.
I TOLD YOU SO! JOHN McCAIN IS A FREAKING DEMOCRAT IN RINO CLOTHING!
John McCain is a freaking disaster folks. If he gets elected as President, he will ensure a permanent Democrat majority. DO NOT VOTE FOR THIS DANGEROUS MAN!
I agree McCain is the Manchurian Candidate, Hillary is Nixon redux, Obama is a Satanic Jimmy Carter.
OT.. in the New York Times piece..
it referred to ‘Senator McCain’ only once.. the rest of the time it was ‘Mr. McCain’.. I’ll have to see if BHO or HRC is treated with the same respect..
Back on topic.. Voting for President this year is like getting only vanilla for a choice of flavor.. but you can have a bowl, plain cone, or sugar cone..
Let me rephrase that last post..
You have a carton of neopolitan ice cream but all the chocolate and vanilla has been eaten.. but you DO have a choice of serving it in 3 different types of bowls..
(not even the benefit of a cone..)
What can one expect of a man who drafted Amnesty with Teddy?
Well-deserving? Classic phrase of the entitlement society, ie the liberal left. Since when are THIEVES well-deserving? Come on, McCain! Wake up, will ya! If these suburbanites wouldn’t spend $ they don’t have and pay things off on time, we wouldn’t be in this mess!
Here’s my idea: Don’t buy things you can’t pay for!
That’s the format the Times uses with all politicians.
Since John McCain spent so much time in the Navy, he has no problem with spreading the concept of Basic Pay and Allowances.
You know: Gub’ment paid housing, subsistence pay.
For Americans who do pay their own way, couldn’t we at least get Hazardous Duty Pay for not being a hazard to other taxpayers, but being hazarded by the current flock of Senators and Congressors (rhymes with “oppressors”).
Votes! It’s all about votes. The heck with the country and Constitution. They want votes in order to stay in power, or, in case of the democrats, gain the White House. “Look what I have done for you. Don’t forget me at the polls.” We’ve become a national Tammany Hall.
I made Corkers staff so mad at me they wouldn’t even talk to me! I have pepperd them with email, website links and phone calls. It didnt work on alexander though. No, I didnt forget the capital.
Furious in Tennessee!
I just re-read my pocket constitution with amendments and I don’t see home ownership as a right. Actually, I don’t see any mention of “the American dream” in their either.
If you want to see how well this bailout will work, just look at Katrina. Or more currently – look at how well they are doing in the air passenger market. Completely unrelated events – but still government handled.
ugh – their -> there (serves me right for ranting before I’m awake)
The problem is simple actually. Do we want the government re-writing private contracts? I don’t. Two private entities wrote a contract (maybe flawed – maybe quite flawed but still a private contract). Now because the private contract didn’t go well, the politicians (very few of whom actually know anything about economics – they are lawyers mostly) want to step in and re-write the contract. That is BAD POLICY.
Remember – these are the same politicians who want to know things like if the mars rover will drive past the flag left on the moon.
Thanks Mookie..
I was kinda shuddering to actually have to check out the NYT.
I can’t believe it, Hagel and Warner voted “no”. My two Senators voted “yes”, Martinez and Nelson, I am so proud. (sarc off)
We are in big trouble.
We haven’t seen anything yet if the Socialists come to power and saddle us with _irreversible_ social programs (operative word here, folks — it’d be something no next term Conservative Prez or whoever will EVER get rid of!). Here in Jamaica Queens, the largest black community outside Washington D.C., you cannot believe the sentiment for _free universal housing_ on top of food. Forget killing a sense of self-reliance, this will also sap the incentive of black youth to work much less excell at school. But the Socialists know (sadly) black Americans will overwhelmingly eat this notion up. If you don’t care about your wallets and want to promote such a wish one day, just help the Socialists into office. There’s no if-ands-buts or stuck-up pride crap here. Look, I’m a hardcore Thompson guy but my man flunked out, but I damn sure aren’t going to help put the Socialists on the throne to raise Cain with my taxes and lower this country’s general sense of worth and self-esteem.
James Greenidge
Queens NY
Michelle thanks for providing the roll call of the vote. It appears my pounding and that of my neighbors on Senator Crapo worked. “Wide stance” Craig continues to be a disappointment though. Can’t wait for that lying sack of excrement to leave the Senate.
When did Americans and their enabler politicians get the idea that the federal government can save everybody? The federal government (and the states) have pored billions of taxpayer money into public education for what? Americans are more uninformed than ever.
The Washington politicians get billions of dollars in pork barrel projects inserted into bills that will only benefit their consitutuents but not the American public at large. Where’s the money from the general fund that was supposed to go to Social Security and other social entitlement programs?
When will Americans stop going to greedy politicians whining for help when they were the ones that made the bad choices, along with the mortgage, banking, construction, and real estate industries, to begin with? When Obummer says that McCain is just a continuation of “you’re on your own” policies I just want to scream.
If you’re a responsible, sensible, financially solvent taxpayer, yeah, you’re on your own. You’ll be the one who pays for this housing boondoggle so that irresponsible whiners (such as those who could never have payed off their mortgages) get a free ride. If Americans want this, we’re in more trouble then we thought.
Welcome to George Soros’ version of a socialist paradise. Me and mine get to earn a living so that dirty state and federal politicians and their constitutents get to take away my success, accomplishments, and say over how I spend my money. How fair is that? What about us? What did we do to deserve this?
I hear there are some trailers in Hope, Arkansas where some of these whiners can make a brand new start out of bankruptcy…
#39 Regulus
GREAT post, thank you for inserting some compassion and intelligence into this thread.
This isn’t about saving homeowners it’s about saving the banks and homebuilders. Truthfully, Congress would just like us to pretend they care about our fellow citizens, when in reality they slip all sorts of provisions into the bill that are blatent benefits to corporations.
From Reuters…
…
Transparent, isn’t it? No campaign contributions… oh let’s have a law that gives them a lot in tax-breaks, even though home builders have been profitable for beyond 4 years… so this means they would be able to get more tax money back.
This is criminal, and this should be the focus of your posting Michelle. Do these blatent “steal from the taxpayer give to the corporation” provisions stay in the bill.
What happened to the concept of “less” government, not “more”? (That is still a concept, isn’t it?)
We don’t just have *some* Rinos in the republican party anymore. The whole party is RINO.