Showdown in the House: GOP disrupts mortgage bailout debate over war funding; Dems curtail dissenting amendments
I tuned into to C-SPAN to liveblog the mortgage bailout bill debate for you, but saw this instead:
The House efforts to take up housing bills introduced by Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA), Financial Services Cmte. Chair., and Ranking Member Rep. Spencer Bachus (R-AL), have been interrupted by a series of House Republican protest votes over the war funding bill.
Surfing over the House website, it looks like there were two procedural motions to adjourn this afternoon.
President Bush is vowing to veto both bills:
U.S. President George Bush Wednesday vowed to veto a war funding bill and housing bills he said would benefit speculators and lenders.
“I told the members (of Congress) I support $108 billion supplemental without any strings, and that we’re going to work toward that goal,” Bush told reporters after meeting with House GOP leaders.
The House is scheduled to take up a bill that would provide $195 billion in spending for the remainder of fiscal year 2008 and into fiscal year 2009.
Another veto was promised for housing-related measures being considered in the House.
“(We) are committed to a good housing bill that will help folks stay in their house, as opposed to a housing bill that will reward speculators and lenders,” Bush said.
GOP criticism of the Dems’ timetable-conditioned, domestic-spending-stuffed war funding bill here.
Debate on the House floor has just now resumed. Keeping my eye on it…
***
3:40pm Eastern. There’s a Democrat on the floor who keeps insisting that this bailout isn’t going to cost taxpayers annnnything since it’s only granting the FHA “authority,” not money.
What a heaping load of bullcrap.
John Berlau at OpenMarket.org explains:
The Congressional Budget Office just came out with an estimate of $2.7 billion for H.R. 5830, the so-called FHA Housing Stabilization and Homeownership Retention Act of 2008, which may be rolled into larger housing bills on the House floor.
But there could be an even greater cost from the bill to millions of middle-class investors saving for their retirement or the education of their children. The bill has the Federal Housing Administration guarantee the refinancing of a mortgage in return from a “haircut” from the owners of the loan. The bill requires loans to be guaranteed at no more than 85 percent of the value, meaning a 15 percent loss for investors. But this haircut will “shave” billions of dollars off from funds saved for retirement or education.
This bill not only “robs Peter to Pay Paul,” through taxpayers’ bailout of bad loans by banks and borrowers. It can also be said to “abrogate Paul’s contract to Peter.” This is because many of the mortgages often aren’t owned by the banks that service them, but instead frequently by millions of middle class investors through their interests in entities that have mortgage-backed securities (MBS).
Many middle-class folks who have 401(k) accounts, mutual funds, money market funds or defined-benefit pensions are indirect holders of MBS. In fact, according to investment bank Credit Suisse, 14 percent of MBS are owned by pensions and mutual funds that serve middle-class savers.
So, let’s do some math. The bill authorizes the FHA to guarantee up to $300 billion in mortgages. With the 15 percent haircut, the loans were originally worth $345 billion. So $45 billion represents the potential lost savings by the private sector. Now assume, per the Credit Suisse stats, that a random 14 percent of the loans in this program represent those owned by pensions and mutual funds. 14 percent of $45 billion is $6.3 billion.
The bottom line is that middle-class savers and investors could be left more than $6 billion poorer in savings for retirement and education of their children. Another compelling reason this bailout is not worth the cost.
4:06pm Eastern. Sheila Jackson Lee was fulminating. Now, GOP Rep. Tom Price is on the floor excoriating the Dem majority for silencing the minority. He submitted four substantive amendments that were denied by the Dems’ restrictive process. “Stop playing politics, stop breaking promises, allow the members of this House to represent their constituents.”
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I’m buying a house soon.. I wonder if I can get a pre-emptive bailout so I can buy a bigger house than I can afford?
*roll eyes* ~ Dan Lee
lgm, if you have any problems with this disruptive strategy today, just think of it as what the left does…except without bombs or knocking down crosses.
OMG, I can not believe this! We might be getting some testosterone in DC? I do hope Pres. Bush does what he says with the veto.
L
It is typical for house Dems to put people who live beyond their means ahead of the troops. They don’t get it. It’s not over until the enemy wins. I bet if the war was going badly with high casualties, they would be talking about the war.
/s/
the guerilla
Testosterone is to Washington, what Oil is to Water? =P
How so, is code pink marching there this week?
#4 jose said:
Ouch, and concisely accurate.
I hope President Bush veto’s both bills.
However, I’m still losing faith in the Republican party as it is now.
Actually, it’s worse than Berlau computes, I think. A 15% haircut gets to $300 bln down from $353 bln (not $345), so the 14% bath we all take for investing in our future adds up to closer to $7.4 billion.
Great.
So where is the Republican party? Anybody seen or even know who the chairman is today? Really weird party, no leader.
When you consider the Dems backed ADDI 2003 which made mortgage qualification discrimination, why shouldn’t they try and fix problems they create without telling what the real issue is.
ADDI 2003 fueled a speculative So. Florida condo race, since you needed no money down to buy and flip a condo, or house for that matter. Heck the mortgage companies even would pad the mortgage with free money on top, for repairs and upgrades … Now the casino is deserted.
How about a “bailout” for all the people who sat out this speculative market, saving money to buy a “home” they could afford. It works like this:
2% fixed loans (the same rate the banks are getting) and 20% cash grants for down payments. Eligibilty requirements would be actual proof of the ability to pay the loan and absolute proof of U.S. citizenship. This would transfer ownership of these distressed properties from a group of irresponsible people to a group of responsible people. Problem solved.
It seldom matters what the government does to “fix” whatever the problem of the day is, especially in an election year. In the end, the tax paying responsible citizen takes it in the back side.
Another thing, anymore it seems it doesn’t matter which party is in power because it’s getting harder and harder to tell them apart.
i hope Bush vetoes both bills. However, he seems to have “senioritis” since he is at the end of his presidency.
How about we follow the constitution and get rid of all entitlements!
I’ve got an idea!!!! The government can borrow the money for the bail-out from Social Security.
Oops, too late.
A little bit off topic, but to all you “Conservative” A-Holes who are planning to sit out this election.
Sheila F’ing Jackson Lee.
Nuff said?
It makes me think that this is an analogy where we’re just opening the barn door, so we can close it after the horses have run out and then complain about it.
I want a motorcycle I can’t afford…y’all start paying up!
#19 at least make sure we’re paying for the very best!
Testosterone in DC??
Bill and Monica were spotted together??
Good… I am still not willing to donate, but I think they are starting to get it.
WE MUST take back the House and Senate!!! It is just like the fascist Left to stifle any debate that opposes them! I love that Tom Price asked to be able to represent his constituents.
The day that happens is the day that one person does not “represent” hundreds of thousands of people, and we can initiate change at the local and state level.
JoseTG, not only do they not get it, they don’t care about the troops, and worse yet, they won’t allow the FISA fix bill come to a vote. That means they do not care about US!
So I’m a Conservative a**hole… so be it… at least I’ll have my character, values and integrity intact. BTW Sheila Jackson Lee was voted in by her state constituents. What’s that got to do with McCain and his failures?
I’m sorry my type of Conservative bothers you so but get used to it….. we’re going to fight forever.
#25, I agree with you. I just hold on to the hope my country can survive what seems to be in the future. Me and my house will fight forever also, ‘out of my dead cold hands’. BTW, thank you for your service.
L
Letget, no… thank you, it was my honor.
Michelle’s right about that the bailouts will in fact cost us taxpayers, because the FED is swapping out bad bank assets and giving banks Treasury securities in return to prop up banks assets….We the taxpayer are going to subsidize this bailout with more federal debt.
Stealing money legally away from the responsible American and giving it to the irresponsible American. Typical day at the Congress. “Who shall we give away money to today, to win more votes?”
Here here…now that’s one I go for…well said.
Thank you for your service, I thank you for all you have done to help this great country.
Oh my, a little too late for that. If the Republicans had served their base like they had served their liberal masters, their base would not have deserted them. But the Republicans went to Washington to make deals with the
democratsdevil and now, surprise!, the devil has come to collect. Anyone with an intelligence greater than their shoe size would have seen this coming, but not our guys. Better luck next time, losers — only the odds are there won’t be a next time. You can be sure the democrats, who play for keeps, will see to that.Numbers confuse the heck out of me; I just know that I can’t afford a house. I’ll hang in the apartment until I can swim to my ship.
What the he11 is wrong with politicians in Washington?
Every emergency spending bill that has come up in the past two to three YEARS has had a massive pile of pork added to it. At this rate, every person in the country could likely get a cool million and there would be more left over.
When this bill started out, the White House said they wanted $108B, a couple days ago, Nitwit Pelosi was talking about $170B…as if it all was going to the war, now it’s up to $195B?
Where is all our tax dollars going? besides their pockets?
I understand what you two are saying, but keep in mind, a disabled veteran who might have a leg blown off and is getting a disability payment, is considered by the brainiacs in DC as receiving an “entitlement”, same as some welfare queen.
Government creates problem to make irresponsible people more “equal” with responsible parties.
Government comes in to repair problem costing even more money for the responsible people and keeping housing prices artificially inflated above the means of responsible parties, keeping their precious division of the classes and race in the political forefront and weakening America all the way around.
And this is not an illegal redistribution of funds or centralized federal power doing exactly what we were warned it would?
Maybe the new party of actual Conservatives should be the Responsible Individual Party of America.
RIP (of) America? Is that morbid or just a statement of fact? Political partying above we the people. The politics of divide and conquer in action.
Sad.
When in reality it could be handled as an insurance claim the same as any other disability and handled through private health insurance provided to members of our Armed forces and would thus, be an insurance payment and not a government handout.
While this is just a quick thought and in practice, it would require some additional thinking, this little fact (however true at present) and others like it can be overcome. The fact of the matter remains that the government as it “stands” right now, needs to be torn down and rebuilt. You are certainly right as it stands but fortunately, there are no problems that do not have solutions.
Why is it that the Democrats are in favor of a new G.I. bill and Republicans are against?
The add ons with the GI bill legislation has nothing to do with vets care. I wouldn’t vote for that piece of crap as it stands, either. I’m a disabled vet by the way but only 40 %.
Jfish #9’s math is correct,
345 was mistakenly chosen as 115% of 300, assumingly because 15% is the difference between 85% and 100%, but this is multiplication, not addition.
The numbers in question represent that 300 is 85% of X, NOT that X is 115% of 300.
X * 0.85 = 300
X = 300 / 0.85
X = 353
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