McCain wants to spend $300 billion to buy up bad mortgages; Martin Feldstein behind it
Scroll down for updates…McCain’s April 15 remarks added below…Economist Martin Feldstein pitched the plan in the WSJ…see response below…
I can’t underscore enough what a rotten idea John McCain’s ACORN-like government mortgage buy-up is. I said it during my liveblog. And I’ll say it again: “HE WANTS TO EXPAND THE BAILOUT. He wants to do what ACORN wants to do. We’re Screwed ‘08.”
This was his supposed “game-changer.” This was the very first thing out of his mouth during the debate tonight — his big pitch right off the bat. The McCain campaign immediately sent out this fact sheet on the proposal, which will cost at least $300 billion. The proposal involves directing the Treasury Secretary to “purchase mortgages directly from homeowners and mortgage servicers.” That’s on top of the trillion-dollar crap sandwich (update - McCain says it would be included in the crap sandwich), the $85 billion to AIG, the $25 billion to automakers, the $200 billion in capital and credit lines to Fannie and Freddie, and who knows what else we’ll be forking over to California, Massachusetts, etc., etc., etc.
He spent the entire debate assailing massive government spending — while his featured proposal of the night was to heap on more massive government spending to pursue home ownership/retention at all costs. If Obama had proposed this, the Right would be screaming bloody murder about this socialist grab to have the Treasury Department renegotiate individual home loans and become chief principal write-down agents for the nation.
As I put it this morning: “Getting credit is not a constitutional right. Preserving home ownership should not be a government imperative to be pursued at all costs. Neither should foreclosure prevention at all costs.”
Read and weep:
AMERICAN HOMEOWNERSHIP RESURGENCE PLAN
John McCain will direct his Treasury Secretary to implement an American Homeownership Resurgence Plan (McCain Resurgence Plan) to keep families in their homes, avoid foreclosures, save failing neighborhoods, stabilize the housing market and attack the roots of our financial crisis. America’s families are bearing a heavy burden from falling housing prices, mortgage delinquencies, foreclosures, and a weak economy. It is important that those families who have worked hard enough to finance homeownership not have that dream crushed under the weight of the wrong mortgage. The existing debts are too large compared to the value of housing. For those that cannot make payments, mortgages must be re-structured to put losses on the books and put homeowners in manageable mortgages. Lenders in these cases must recognize the loss that they’ve already suffered.
The McCain Resurgence Plan would purchase mortgages directly from homeowners and mortgage servicers, and replace them with manageable, fixed-rate mortgages that will keep families in their homes. By purchasing the existing, failing mortgages the McCain resurgence plan will eliminate uncertainty over defaults, support the value of mortgage-backed derivatives and alleviate risks that are freezing financial markets.
The McCain resurgence plan would be available to mortgage holders that:
· Live in the home (primary residence only)
· Can prove their creditworthiness at the time of the original loan (no falsifications and provided a down payment).
The new mortgage would be an FHA-guaranteed fixed-rate mortgage at terms manageable for the homeowner. The direct cost of this plan would be roughly $300 billion because the purchase of mortgages would relieve homeowners of “negative equity” in some homes. Funds provided by Congress in recent financial market stabilization bill can be used for this purpose; indeed by stabilizing mortgages it will likely be possible to avoid some purposes previously assumed needed in that bill.
The plan could be implemented quickly as a result of the authorities provided in the stabilization bill, the recent housing bill, and the U.S. government’s conservatorship of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. It may be necessary for Congress to raise the overall borrowing limit.
Read that last paragraph again. He would enact this new spending plan using the authorities provided in the stabilization bill — the same ones I reported on in my special column for the NYPost today championed by Obama’s friends at ACORN.
It’s a great idea…for everyone who bought overpriced homes with Adjustable Rate Mortgages. Those who rented or bought within their means or locked into fixed-rate loans that they can afford are out of luck, naturally.
Question: Will he propose a similar plan for those who bought mutual funds at or near the market top?
Dude, where’s their bailout?
***
Stephen Spruiell gives thumbs down:
Yeah… didn’t Congress just enact major legislation to address this problem? The Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008 created a federal mortgage-insurance program for lenders who agree to reduce mortgage payments for struggling borrowers.
How is McCain’s plan different? I’ll try to explain. Let’s say you have a $200,000 adjustable-rate mortgage. Your home’s value has declined, your interest rate has gone up and you can no longer afford to make the payments. Under current law, the government will guarantee your mortgage if your lender agrees to work out a deal with you.
Under McCain’s plan, the Treasury Secretary would buy your mortgage from whoever owns it and then deal with you directly. In many cases, the Treasury Department would already own your mortgage, because it is about to buy up $700 billion worth of mortgage-backed securities. But under McCain’s plan, Treasury would also become your loan servicer…McCain’s plan is redundant, and it would create significant new responsibilities (and costs) for an already-beleagu[e]red agency. I’m not sure what the campaign was thinking.
Let me repeat what I said about this plan in my ACORN column, because every word applies to McCain:
This will radically expand the federal role in meddling with mortgage loans. The key sections mandate that the Treasury “consent” to rewriting loans to prevent foreclosures – not only by reducing interest, but also by cutting loan principal.
Stuck with a $300,000 mortgage you can’t pay? Get the government to wave its magic wand and cut your debt to $150,000.The deal is only for those who have fallen behind on their mortgages, of course – not for all you chumps who’ve been paying on time.
And it’s a good bet that ACORN mortgage counselors will “help” decide which distressed borrowers benefit, and how.
The group’s housing arm, the Acorn Housing Corp., is already funded with millions of taxpayer dollars to renegotiate loans for low-income people who should have never received them in the first place. Loan modification is ACORN’s bread and butter.
And when the group doesn’t get what it wants, it will sue, protest and shake down until business and government bend again.
Rep. John Culberson (R-Texas) foresees havoc: “Liberals who manage these programs will give away millions of free or reduced homes in neighborhoods all over America to families who could not otherwise afford them.
“The federal government now has the power to create federal housing projects, house by house, in neighborhoods all over America. Just imagine what that means for property values and the safety and security of your neighborhood.”
All this comes on top of the $5 billion ACORN-backed housing bill passed in July, which hands $600 million-plus to ACORN and similar groups to bail out homeowners under water and help countless more risky loan prospects.
During the floor debate on Friday, Reps. Frank and Waters assured Democratic colleagues that they had personally lobbied Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson on these measures and would press him to consent to “do the kind of loan modifications we’ve been urging.”
Waters exulted: “We’re in charge! . . . We own them now.”
If the banks and others that collect payments on these distressed mortgages don’t write down enough loan principal to keep Rep. Frank happy, he threatens hearings and new legislation next year.
He’ll have the backing of ACORN. ACORN President Maude Hurd warns that her “members plan to hold Secretary Paulson accountable and ensure he uses this authority to make streamlined loan modifications a priority for struggling American families.”
What’s next? Principal write-downs on credit cards and car loans? What incentive do responsible borrowers have left to pay their bills on time?
***
Commenter astonerii adds: “It does not matter whether it is on top of the current $700,000,000,000.00 bailout. It is the simple fact that McCain thinks that house prices need to be stabilized by government mandate . That the government has any business at all to do with the price of a home. That the government’s duty is to keep people in their overpriced homes. That the government should discriminate against non home owners by helping establish home prices that are outside the range of many if not most people who work near where the homes are located. The government is not the economy, unless you are communist marxist socialist. Get the God Damned American government out of my pocket and my choices and do it now.”
Andy McCarthy counts the many other ways that McCain’s performance was a disaster.
Andy, I’m with you.
***
Ugh. McCain talked about his home loan plan in April:
These reforms must wait on the next election, but to help our workers and our economy we must also act in the here and now. And we must start with the subprime mortgage crisis, with the hundreds of thousands of citizens who played by the rules, yet now fear losing their houses. Under the HOME plan I have proposed, our government will offer these Americans direct and immediate help that can make all the difference: If you can’t make your payments, and you’re in danger of foreclosure, you will be able to go to any Post Office and pick up a form for a new HOME loan. In place of your flawed mortgage loan, you’ll be eligible for a new, 30-year fixed-rate loan backed by the United States government. Citizens will keep their homes, lenders will cut their losses, and everyone will move on — following the sounder practices that should have been observed in the first place.
***
Reader reaction is pouring in. A few of the best ones:
From e-mailer Danny…
Sorry to say – during tonight’s debate – all I had to hear was: (1) McCain offer additional housing bailouts in response to the 1st question and, (2) a dedicated lack of confrontation in response to (a) Obama’s ‘Bush = McCain’ rhetoric and, (b) lack of willingness to drive a stake into Fannie Mae + Franklin Gaines + Obama & Democrats – that I had to fight myself from turning the TV off.
Clearly – the wrong Republican on the ticket was out there tonight.
What about all of McCain’s talk about “victory”? It matters in Iraq, but not in Michigan, not in tonight’s debate?
Gov Palin sounds like more of the leader I am looking for – not someone to call me “friend” – but someone to show me some fight. If I feel this way – I wonder what our servicemen and servicewomen in Iraq and Afghanistan will think about when they see this performance and truly study it with a critical eye?
Take the gloves off – and put on the brass knuckles.
I will still vote for the McCain-Palin ticket – but only because Gov Palin is on it. Truly, I feel sorry for her. At least she FIGHTS. Sen. McCain’s performance tonight was more like Captain Hazelwood of the Exxon Valdez – playing slalom with icebergs.
Jimmie at The Sundries Shack:
And what about the non-homeowners who have worked hard and decided, responsibly, not to live under the Damocles’ Sword of an Adjustable Rate Mortgage knowing that, at some point, that rate was going to adjust upward and put them in serious trouble?
Screw us, apparently.
Here’s the thing, though. The value of housing fluctuates with the demand for housing. The government is hideously bad in picking the value of anything. Don’t believe me?
The government has been helping to set the value of health care through Medicare for decades. How’s that been working out?…
And from commenter DirkBelig:
While on points tonight’s debate was a draw, in all practicality it was the beginning of the end for the once-great nation of the United States of America.
When is Kathleen Parker going to demand that McCain drop off the ticket to spare Sarah Palin the embarrassment? After Palin finally forced Obama’s radical pals into the light where even CNN had to acknowledge their existence, McCain doddered into the debate tonight and blew it, allowing the pundits on Nightline to declare such talk the desperate actions of a rapidly fading candidate “talking about 40-year-old events when the public is worried about the economy today.” He sent his wingman out on a mission and left her hanging out to dry.
Buying up bad mortgages was his big idea for the evening? Why not just hand him a horn labeled “ME TOO!” for him to honk whenever Obama promised to give everyone (but Mean Rich People) a tax cut and a kitten that will only poop rainbows? Allowing Obama to twist the “he doesn’t understand” riff back on him allowed a demerit on Obama become a slam on McCain that taps into the public’s fatigue with a seemingly-endless war that Dubya never was able to articulate the need for when it counted.
We are four weeks until the Election and the only one speaking the Truth about Obama is Sarah Palin. McCain isn’t getting his message out thru the Treason Media’s filters. Obama’s ACORN cronies are rounding up homeless people to commit voter fraud in Ohio already. With conservatives already leery of McCain and only staying interested because of patriotism and Palin, the longer he shuffles along, the more likely this “imperfect servant’s” last public act will be to deliver the United States into the hands of the fascists and communists that he once fought against and suffered under. I wonder if he even knows how badly he is failing – not only himself, but his country?
Too bad I never developed a taste for therapeutic alcohol because if I did, I’d be self-medicating something fierce now. Cheers!
***
Apparently, some conservatives think this individual home loan mortgage nationalization plan is okay because economist Martin Feldstein proposed it. If you think falling housing prices are the “problem,” then of course you’ll go along with massive government intervention to stop the “crisis.”
I agree with this guy:
This has got to be the stupidest idea I’ve ever heard.
The argument about a low-cost loan cutting back on monthly payments has a tiny degree of merit, but the idea that the homeowner is going to think about his mortgage obligation differently because it is split into two pieces is just plain dumb – especially if the new loan is full recourse and from the U.S. government!
The whole idea of somehow propping up home prices is just sickening and the notion that renowned economists still think the root cause of the current problem is falling home prices rather than the policies that allowed home prices to rise to their previous bubble heights – well, that’s even more sickening.
More reax:
Dumb idea. Only someone with a degree in Keynesian economics would think splitting a mortgage into two parts is somehow “helping” the upside-down borrower.
Plus, anyone who is foolish enough to borrow from the government with full recourse would be asking for trouble. Ask anyone who is behind on their student loan payments. Miss a payment or two and the penalties and interest will multiply the balance due beyond the point where you will ever catch up, and the IRS will garnish your wages to get the money back.
As with any government “deal”, the likely downside far outweighs the possible upside.
***
The trouble with the government changing the terms of existing mortgages is that they will have to totally destroy contract law. Any advantage given to one party in a contract will be a disadvantage to the other party. We will no longer be a country of laws but a country of arbitrary government edicts.
Feldstein is nuts. He claims to be worried about “overshooting” on the way down. History shows that declining home prices don’t overshoot the way stocks often do. Instead, the decline slows as prices approach fair value. Then nominal prices stop falling as inflation gradually eats away at the real value of real estate. Nominal prices start rising again only when they have roughly reached fair value. The reason real estate prices don’t overshoot on the way down is because they are sticky upwards.
Feldstein’s concern about overshooting suggests that he thinks the fair value for real estate is a lot higher than it actually is. Notice that he thinks a 15% decline over the coming year would be enough to return housing to reasonable levels. (He’s using real numbers, not nominal. With our current 4% inflation rate, he’s talking an 11% nominal decline over the next year.) Feldstein’s real aim is to prevent a much-needed real estate correction.
Feldstein is a Republican. I thought Republicans were supposed to believe in the free market. I guess they do except for when they don’t.
Yeah, that ship has sailed.
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Yeah, we’re screwed.
The conservative base will vote for McCain/Palin no matter what this year. He’s trying to bribe back some poor moderates. It’s a smart strategy to win. He is a politician, you know, just like Obama. The object is to win.
Who the hell advises this guy? And where are the “real” advisors, you know, the ones with a BRAIN ?
I cannot recognize my country any more. I do not even recognize what it means to be a conservative.
I guess McCain wants to get the vote of the irresponsible home buyer (10% of mortgage holders?) at the expense of the responsible home buyer (90% of mortgage holders and 100% of home owners) along with losing the vote of the people who eventually want to own a home someday, and that would be people like me.
House prices went up over 100% and have fallen 25% or so. They need to drop another 25% from highs or 35% from current prices to be in the range of affordable, which is about 12% higher than they were in 1998. John McCain continues to isolate himself from his base, and while Palin may give some level of benifit, McCain is tossing all of that benifit out the window. The only thing we have left is that he at least put Palin into the national spotlight so we know we have someone to look forward to in 4 to 8 years.
Ur’s more than “We’re Screwed ‘08″. It’s Screwed but Good” because once Obama gets in and institutionalizes state-run cradle to grave nanny-state programs, they are monsters that are NEVER going away, no matter WHAT administration succeeds him! I wish more folks got this! Forget winning ‘12, 16, ‘20. Those future administrations CANNOT rollback socialism! Palin and RNC — Last ditch chance, play the dirty truth card NOW!! The race card’s already being played since 90%+ blacks are voting Obamna! Go for broke!!!!
James Greenidge
Queens NY
You must REALLY hate George Bush bad to vote for Obama!
Do not count on my conservative vote this year. There is no conservative in the race. We have the choice between a socialist in name (democrat) or socialist in nature (republican) and quite frankly when this nation is torn assunder the one thing that I want left intact at the end of the terror is the republican brand name.
I am really beyond words right now, but I will say this: What the hell has happened to my country and my party?!
More transfer of wealth from those that earned it to those that couldn’t be bothered to earn it.
Karl Marx would be pleased.
I have a better idea. Let them rent an apartment and let the housing market finish it’s correction.
If someone wants to dump money into mortgages, reward those the made GOOD decisions with additional tax credits.
Isn’t McCain’s idea about buying up the mortgages already in the bailout bill? I thought that was one of the main components?
I’m with astonerii: this simply is not the country I’ve known, loved and been so proud of, the country my husband served for 26 years.
I really like Sarah Palin, but after tonight, I just don’t see how I can possibly vote for John McCain. Obama and McCain will ruin this country – well that’s if there’s anything left to ruin after what Congress has done.
I’m now in the market for a new country if any one has suggestions.
Not directly from homeowners.
I am sooooooo #@%^& ANGRY about all this talk of bailing out these mortgages!!!! When the debate question was what would you ask America to sacrifice, SOMEONE should have said the expectation to never have personal responsibility. This country needs to get back to the basics of personal responsibility and stop buying off votes with MY money. I seriously feel like calling the IRS and telling them that I pay all my bills on time but since others have been saved from the consequences of not paying bills, I expect them to look the other way when I don’t pay their bill. I am so tired of paying for crap for irresponsible people!!
ENOUGH IS ENOUGH – WHEN IS THIS GOING TO END???
I hope he was referring to the stipulations already in the bailout. YIKES!
BTW, I can’t understand for the life of me why it’s not illegal for the government to enter the housing market, the banking market and now the legal market (renegotiating loans).
It’s taking from the responsible to give to the irresponsible. Just how long do they think we can bear this burden.
This is the penance we pay for nominating a non-conservative as Republican candidate for President of the United States. We have given up the principles and heart of our party.
John’s a fine man, and I’m fine with him representing his constituency in the Senate as a part of the Republican party. Some of his viewpoints lean conservative. But he is not a strong enough fundamental conservative to be put into the position of running for POTUS. Sadly, though, there’s not a well known national name that we could have nominated that would have fit that criteria.
It’s sad really. We’ve done it to ourselves.
Yeah, that sickened me, too.
McCain started out pretty strong, seemed on the attack, but as Brokaw sucked all the oxygen from the room, the whole thing went to yawnfest…
You’re yawning now just thinking about that debate, aren’t you….
They’re the government. They decide what’s legal, even if it’s unconstitutional.
I think this idea will probably get John McCain beaten. If this is on top of the already passed bail out. McCain has just blown it.
Yeah, we’re screwed and BO will cost us much more the 300 billion on the next four years.
This guys is scaring the crap out of me. I’m just saying that McCain is slipping down a slippery slope.
Might I ask that those so inclined FAST and PRAY for John McCain to be removed from the Republican ticket and replaced with a God-fearing Strict-Constructionist Conservative?
I agree. While the “love fest” was going on, Countrywide, my mortgage holder, called to see if I needed help with my mortgage. I said sure, I have a 30 yr fixed at 5.5%, can you give me the deal that Chris Dodd got?
What a bunch of freakin’ idiots. She said let me have you talk to an adviser at no cost or obligation to you. While we waited, she asked me about the weather. I asked if she was calling from the Philippines (beer spelling issues) and she said no, Ohio. I said I don’t have time for idiots.
I can’t believe this is what is happening in out Country.
Trying to keep up the good fight. Go Sarahcuda.
In the intrest of disclosure, I got the Dodd recommendation from my Dad.
Now explain to me how that fits with the next paragraph that talks about the government buying these loans to the tune of $300 Billion and relieving people of negative equity? Where do you see the lenders recognizing a loss? I see the taxpayers recognizing the loss.
Oh, maybe he was talking about the “new” lenders!
Community organizers brainwashed minorities and young people…. and infiltrators from abroad, along with spineless citizens took it over from within.
Took.. paste tense.
I remember a time when you looked at presidential candidates and could be sure they were patriots and be sure that they wanted the spirit and ingenuity of this country to soar.
I look at Obama, and many others in politics, and I see an enemy of this land. Someone wishing to tear it down and remake it into some deranged socialist state where politicians are the ruling elite and citizens are the tools and instruments of their power. Nothing more.
It sounds Orwellian, but look around. What do you see?
Our guiding principles are being taken hostage. Locked away. If these people succeed, what was America may never exist again in our lifetimes, or our children’s lifetimes.
Good lord. Well, hey, what’s another $300,000,000,000?
*facepalm*
Well except the president is the executive branch and the congress is the legislative branch. As I recall (of course there were only 50 states then) there’s a third branch of government called the judicial branch………..
$700 billion here, $300 billion there, pretty soon you are talking about a lot of money.
We are the last one standing and that is why it is imperative to the Socialist International that we do indeed fall. And that is why it is imperative we do whatever it takes to not fall.
IN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America
When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
–
“I ask, sir, what is the militia? It is the whole people, except for a few public officials.” -George Mason, 3 Elliot, Debates at 425-426.
Oh yeah, another thing really hit me today as they were opening up the federal reserves to pour on the market – what happens when we have the next 9/ll?
Bin Laden does watch TV. He must know we are ripe for a real meltdown from another attack.
McCain was never a genuine small government guy. His global warming and amnesty bills would have (will?) cost trillions of dollars.
But because he makes a stink about earmarks he’s able to con people into thinking he’s a fiscal Reagan.
This plan does not have to be on top of the current bailout. The bailout gives latitude to what treasury can buy, and there is nothing against him buying a single mortgage and then turning around and doing a refinance on it. He could conversely buy the MBS that has many mortgages on it and do a one by one renegotiation.
The problem is that this only PUNTS the PROBLEM of OVERPRICED HOUSING down the road because houses never hit their true capitalism market price.
It does not matter whether it is on top of the current $700,000,000,000.00 bailout. It is the simple fact that McCain thinks that house prices need to be stabilized by government mandate . That the government has any business at all to do with the price of a home. That the governments duty is to keep people in their overpriced homes. That the government should discriminate against non home owners by helping establish home prices that are outside the range of many if not most people who work near where the homes are located.
The government is not the economy, unless you are communist marxist socialist. Get the God Damned American government out of my pocket and my choices and do it now.
McCain is nuts with this proposal.
Yeah, I guess they should have asked tonight if owning a home was a right or a responsibility. Apparently it’s become a right when I wasn’t looking.
We are screwed no matter who wins. There is a silver lining if BO wins:
1. No more McCain
2. No more Hillary
3. After four years of mismangement under a Democrat POTUS and Congress, they won’t be able to blame Republicans.
4. Palin ‘12!!!!!
There really won’t be much difference between an Obama or McCain presidency anyway. Anyone who thinks so hasn’t been paying attention.
Only the sheep.
Real conservatives know McCain is the diet Pepsi of socialism.
The lote…Yeah, that’ll save us.
This is what we get when we let the media choose our candidates. The left-most leaning dem vs. the left-most leaning repub.
And we owe it all to McCain-Feingold and it’s constitution shredding free speech limits. You sold us out, Johnny. You sold your country out. And now the media is picking the President, too. These were your rules. “Country First”…FU
Well except for those houses where the owners are paying the mortgages on. Those get to sink to their “real” value.
Not to threadjack, but according to Drudge, NBC has got the “re-edited” SNL skit back up.
Going to bed. But I sure was screaming at the boob tube when he mentioned “Climate Change.” GOD help us all.
Katablog
Eventually they will sink to their true value. But McCain’s plan is to simply prevent houses from going onto the market after a foreclosure. Keep people in their homes, prevent an oversupply of houses that force prices down to where most people can afford them without fancy financing. So, if you are paying your house off and you want to have high equity in it, then McCain paying off other peoples mortgages helps you, but likely still pisses you off.
The problem is that this leaves the economy STUCK in nuetral for many years instead of in decline for a few months to a year followed by rapid growth.
Already blogged that seven hours ago.
John McCain’s Crap Sandwich Wrap… Way to stand for conservative principles senator.
We might be able to talk some of these folks down here in Texas into seceding. There is a lot of land down here; nice weather; good people; a business-minded, conservative culture; and nice cities… Just a thought
On a more serious note, I’m not sure there is anywhere left to go. Europe is in worse shape than we are as are Australia and New Zealand. If you speak Mandarin or have ancestral roots in China, that is where I’d head. I have my doubts that Japan will survive in the long run – after the fall of the US.. Canada may survive… but I doubt it.
Oh. Well….. Never mind.
Is this McCain’s lame attempt to be Teddy Roosevelt?
Simple. Give ‘em a bottle of Zinfandel and their fears will be over.
See? Socialism isn’t that awful.
Next problem?
I just read his proposal on hiw website. It is a simple procedure to get this done. You go to the post office, pick up a FHA home loan application and fill it out. The FHA then retires your debt at the owner of the Mortgage and writes you a whole new loan.
The government setting the value of homes. Sure makes me wish that I had bought a home in 2006 irresponsibly and even took out one of those 125% home loans with a 3 year ARM with negative ammortization. I could have gotten a way overpriced home, pocketed enough money to buy lots of furniture and a nice SUV, put enough money in the bank to pay my mortgage bills for the three years, then have the government come along and renegotiate my loan terms to the current value of the home at a nice extra low 30 year fixed rate mortgage. Perhaps shortly after that I could sell the home to someone else, keep the furniture and the SUV and go rent a place I can really afford.
Have I misunderstood? His spokesman has just said that, in the distribution of the $700 billion bailout, homeowners — not banks and lending agencies — would be taken care of FIRST!
I’ve not heard anyone say McCain is calling for additional bail out $$ ….
Oh goody, this just in from my FAVORITE insurance carrier, AIG (from Drudge)
AIG execs treated to spa outting after Bailout….
Nice. sarc/off
The falling price of a home means NOTHING unless you HAVE to sell it. Making payments is EASY if you still have your same job. Home prices have gone up and down forever. No rescue is needed if your home value has gone down and you intend to stay in your home, AND you still have your job.
This is an employment problem, not a housing problem, for homeowners, except for idiots who got ARM’s and overbought. These
folksidiots get to lose their houses or barter with their mortgage companies.For investors …. well, that’s another kettle of fish.
What am I missing, McCain??
Michelle just said it.
The debate was so dull I couldn’t pay attention, and I am usually a junkie for these things.
But Michelle implied that she received a talking-points sheet from the campaign that explained it, so I think now she’s explaining it to us.
That’s the second time in this thread that Drudge is mentioned for old stories! Linked that two days ago.
LOL, you too quick Michelle. (hands up)
Didn’t just “imply” it. I quoted directly from the McCain fact sheet on it. See above.
If McCain loses, Obama wins.
If Obama wins, the economy will disintegrate. But that will stop or seriously slow illegal immigration.
Also attempting to put in a RINO like McCain will be in disrepute, which is a good thing.
And on other issues where Obama will attempt to destroy the US, we will have much better control of the brainless repubs who voted for this bailout, thus containing the damage from even more massive bailouts.
REcall that it was a Republican president who pushed for this bailout…without that push the current bailout would never have passed. so to save your tax dollars and mine, it makes for the argument for a conservative not to elect John McCain.
The above idea would also preserve our options for 2012 with an even better established Sarah Palin picking up the pieces….
The thought looks more and more palatable all the time.
I need a drink.
That’s better; me- not the country. Sorry.
While on points tonight’s debate was a draw, in all practicality it was the beginning of the end for the once-great nation of the United States of America.
When is Kathleen Parker going to demand that McCain drop off the ticket to spare Sarah Palin the embarrassment? After Palin finally forced Obama’s radical pals into the light where even CNN had to acknowledge their existence, McCain doddered into the debate tonight and blew it, allowing the pundits on Nightline to declare such talk the desperate actions of a rapidly fading candidate “talking about 40-year-old events when the public is worried about the economy today.” He sent his wingman out on a mission and left her hanging out to dry.
Buying up bad mortgages was his big idea for the evening? Why not just hand him a horn labeled “ME TOO!” for him to honk whenever Obama promised to give everyone (but Mean Rich People) a tax cut and a kitten that will only poop rainbows? Allowing Obama to twist the “he doesn’t understand” riff back on him allowed a demerit on Obama become a slam on McCain that taps into the public’s fatigue with a seemingly-endless war that Dubya never was able to articulate the need for when it counted.
We are four weeks until the Election and the only one speaking the Truth about Obama is Sarah Palin. McCain isn’t getting his message out thru the Treason Media’s filters. Obama’s ACORN cronies are rounding up homeless people to commit voter fraud in Ohio already. With conservatives already leery of McCain and only staying interested because of patriotism and Palin, the longer he shuffles along, the more likely this “imperfect servant’s” last public act will be to deliver the United States into the hands of the fascists and communists that he once fought against and suffered under. I wonder if he even knows how badly he is failing – not only himself, but his country?
Too bad I never developed a taste for therapeutic alcohol because if I did, I’d be self-medicating something fierce now. Cheers!
He just keeps pushing his luck, and mj, you don’t know people very well do you? You can only push people with morals, values and integrity so far…think Juan’s there with quite a few now.
People don’t be confused thinking a Republican and a conservative are synonymous, they are no longer to be thought of as the same…not even close.
I hereby predict that if people who can’t pay their mortgages have their principal cut by the government, they’ll default even faster because they’ll suddenly have all this equity they can take out new loans against.
DirkBelig –
Hey, that was good.
I wonder if Sarah Palin already knows McCain intends to lose the election for his liberal friends, and is making sure her own political legacy is protected?
Another queer thought I’m having tonight…
McCain’s mortgage plan is insane. Does he stand on anything? Jeez…. is he making it up as he goes along? Neither one of these guys gets it. Homeownership is not a right. Credit is not a right.
I feel like I’m living in a freaky universe where this country is just lost and there’s no way to ever ever get it back. It makes me sad. I never bought a house. My husband and I had the opportunity to buy a home with 0% down in Colorado Springs, CO but we decided to pass. Something didn’t ring true.
Does nobody even listen to that inner alarm bell that we all have?
McCain is not listening to the voters and to the situation. He’s pandering to the lowest common denominator in a feel good tactic that won’t feel so good when the taxpayers get the bill.
Dirkbelig, if I were not still in school and one quarter away from my B.S. Degree in Economics form University of Washington, I’d have a swig with you tonight as well.
Well, since the MSM has already brainwashed the dumb majority in this nation into voting for Obama, the only thing we can hope for when he falls flat on his face in the first two years is another Newt Gingrich style Republican Revolution that happened back in 1994.
They’re all calling it for Obama, and I’m sure those headlines were written over the weekend.
I have never in my entire life seen the media select our president. Never.
Ugh. Sickening.
I live in a state (GA) that is probably going to go heavily for McCain. I had originally thought about voting for Bob Barr as my protest vote, with McCain still winning Georgia. And heck…if McCain were to lose Georgia, he’s already screwed in so many ways, it’s not funny. I worry about the enormous number of new voters who also voted early at the same time. Works better than the previous voter registration efforts…as those folks who have never registered, are often too lazy to go vote anyway.
I’d convinced myself that a vote for anything other than McCain was a proxy vote for Obama, and that as bad as McCain was, Obama was worse. Can we still say that? Both want government intervention in this government-created mess. Both seem to be amnesty-happy. Both engage in class warfare against “greed”.
I guess I am just frustrated.
I see my plan of government-supplied Zinfandel is catching on!!
BINGO.
No one seems to have a care in the world about those of us that chose not to buy that house, because we had been priced out of the market for YEARS and we thought “wow, adjustable rate…i have no control over that…guess I just have to be responsible and rent a few years more…”
Michelle, mon cher…. please get some sleep love. We need you.
McCain got his ass handed to him by an ignorant neophyte… I am not happy.
WTF is next??
“Grandpa, tell me again that story about a place called “America.”
Basically what this means is that we should all stop paying our mortgages. Whoever holds the loan would instantly sell it to the government. After about one to two years of mortgage-free living you’d get a call by some bureaucrat saying “How can we keep you in your house?”. See we can all profit from this!!
Anyway, I think it’s safe to say John McCain doesn’t know the first thing about economics. Can anyone say ‘Moral Hazard’?
I wonder what Gov. Palin thinks of this bailout +. If she campaigns on that issue along with Juan, and they lose, that would put her in a very difficult position for the future…would it not?
ZOMG!!! She looked at me!!! OMG!OMG!OMG! How do I look?!? Do I have anything in my teeth?
[blushing]
Thanks, MM.
Oh He$$, fred5676, I’d settle for a case of Samuel Adams Double Bock right now…I still bleed Blue-collar sensibilities with respect to picking my poison….
Sorry. The all-knowing government has selected a nice Sept. ‘07 bottle for you. It was a good month. Enjoy.
rightisright said:
If she loses with McCain she can be said to have given her boss his best shot at winning, and her boss blew it…she acquires no stain, just cult -like adjulation from the public and conservatives.
If McCain wins and she is still VP for four years whatever McCain does will stick to her good and bad (and right now it would be mostly bad).
She actually would be better off running against Obama in 2012, and ditching the so-called “maverick”…That could explain her open complaint about leaving Michigan..she was quite unabashed there.
She and McCain would eventually collide, and John McCain WOULD throw her under the bus to please his Democrat friends….that has been John McCain’s M.O. (Modus Operandi) to date.
I would not have said this until tonight
Thanks for the thought fred5676…
Well, firstly – George Bush has probably destroyed the Republican Party for a generation, so it doesn’t really matter what Palin does in the next election. Secondly, this bailout and all the subsequent socialism is about to destroy this country. Palin has tied herself to that by selling her soul to the neoconservatives. Unless Palin gains some sort of independent voice for herself after Obama wins this election, she’s going to blow away into the history of bad decisions.
The Left has been decrying Gov. Palin claiming that she’s inexperienced and that since Sen. McCain is over 70 and has a history of cancer that it’s likely she’ll have to occupied the #1 position very early in the 1st term.
GOD I HOPE SO!*
She’s the only one out the four that is talking sense.
*I don’t wish harm to our Senator but damn it, every time he opens his mouth I start to get chest pains….
This year I am sitting on the sideline.
Not voting for the either idiots.
Waiting til 2012, for Palin-Jindal or Jindal-Palin ticket.
Romney would have wiped the floor with Barack.
WHY did we get stuck with McCain, again?
Which geniuses in the RNC thought McCain was the way to go? THOSE clowns need to be keel-hauled and kicked out immediately.
My God. We should start a “Write-In Romney/Palin” campaign.
The accurate term, Lion, is “Conservatives.”
And, no matter what, we aren’t going away. Regardless of what the liberals and media (and, apparently, our Party) thinks.
This is as good a time as any to establish an Constitutionalist Party.
Don’t forget that it was a coordinated, 11th hour effort between McCain and Huckabee in West Virginia that knocked Romney out of the race. Romney was leading until McCain secured Huckabee’s agreement to dump his support to McCain. Yes, all’s fair in politics, and Romney had weaknesses of his own, but not, in my opinion, the glaring ones McCain has clearly exhibited (uber pandering to Democrats and so-called Independents when there is virtually no chance they’ll vote for him) thus far in his campaign, and even if he manages to eke our a win, the slaps ‘up side de haid’ McCain gives his “base” after taking office will make them wonder for four years whether it’s worth voting for him again in 2012.
Wow. I was driving home from work when I heard McCain whip out the mortgage buy out plan. I about drove off the road. I mean, why was I at work for 11 hours today to make money to make a mortgage when if I was a deadbeat or idiot, he’d pick up my tab? What a bunch of socialist BS.
I don’t think I can vote for him. Perhaps it will be best to have 4 years of Obama to really mess things up to be followed by Palin in 2012. My parents had Carter followed by Reagan. Perhaps I can have Obama followed by Palin.
I don’t believe in hate… but this guy is really pushing me. I blame him and his ego for the final destruction of our country. If he wins he’ll destroy it and if he loses b. Hussein will.
RogerCfromSD – I think that’s exactly what I’m going to do. Write in Romney-Palin. What a team those two would be!
Also, there already is a Constitution Party, but they nominated a Baptist Preacher from Florida that can’t get anyone’s attention. Their platform is pretty spot on though. But the candidate is a non-starter.
McCain is a dolt.
MJ – We’re not like you, where we cvote for a total piece of crap candidate just because he has an R by his name. Which I suppose is good for you… it allows you to have a Dem now and then. You’re projecting. Conservatives are conservative first, and Republican only when the candidate matches.
How do you think Clinton won two terms? Only because the Conservatives and Republicans split thier votes, some going for the LOTE and some going Perot.
The only time a Dem wins is when they cheat or the Rs offer a candidate who would be quite at home in a toilet.
b. Hussein will now quite likely win. You can thank John McCain personally when that happens.
But with his lack of experience, and his horrible judgement and the fact he won’t be able to take telepromters to his meetings in foreign countries, he will fail miserably. We’ll be ready in 2012 to pick up the pieces, if there is a country left.
Or, as has been suggested. Many of us may use the Constitutional clause that allows us to overthrow a totally corrupt government. So enjoy it while you can, it won’t last long either way.
A lot of people already despise John McCain for his policies, and our position was called “MDS”-as though our problem with McCain was unjustified. Well I gave them a chance to prove me wrong..but from what I see, voting for the lesser of two evils is virtually impossible.
Right now on paper, there is no difference between MCain and Obama except with respect to Iraq…and if we follow McCAin’s Obama-imitative madness, we’ll be bankrupt and unable to even fight the war on terror overseas as it is.
Good to hear from you again, Joy. As always you put out a thoughtful post.
Try something more like FOREVER!!!
That McCain has arrived at this spot is no surprise – anyone paying attention could’ve predicted it – but it wasn’t just Dubya who has led the party to ruin, it was the RINOs who besmirched the brand name just as well. The peak of the GOP label was from the time Newt brought them in until they tossed him over the side. After that, they were in a race to the bottom with the Dems and you can’t out socialist native-born socialists.
I think a lot of the bitterness about what’s happening stems from the false hope that the Palin pick gave us. After practically guaranteeing a far-Left pick like Joe Lieberman in test balloons, McCain threw everyone a wicked googly with Moose-Slayer and suddenly we forgot everything we’d resented about him. Who watched her debate Biden last week with their breath held fearing that if she failed, she’d sink him?
Now, show of hands: How many were more afraid that he’d squander her performance that had kept him alive?
If Obama and the Dems have their predicted landslide, it will be portrayed as the repudiation of conservatism and the will of the people to have benevolent fascism bestowed upon the land. Based on the clueless reaction to the 2006 results – when people staying home in disgust at the GOP was read as support for liberalism by the Stupid Party – we can only presume that the party will lurch further to the left in the search of crumbs and in that case, the only prudent course would be to…
BURN THE PARTY DOWN!!!
If the GOP is heading into a long twilight of irrelevance, then CONSERVATIVES should start a new party that reflects their values better than the woeful Stupids. As far gone as the GOP is now, it’s foolish to try to drag it back on course and a waste of time. Let them keep trying to be lighter pink doppelgangers to the Red Dems on their own time and create a more-purely conservative party that actually could work like the mid-Nineties Republicans did.
The alternative to the failed Republican party isn’t the Dems – there’s a reason why people weren’t voting for them in the first place that won’t change – but a reformed party that resurrects the principles they frittered away and arises like the Phoenix.
My Congressman folded on the 2nd bailout vote with a weak “we had to do something” explanation. Now McCain announces Mortgage Care, a plan likely conjured up during a socialist’s wet dream.
Physically ill now from this repulsive debate embarrassment as two renegades bartered favors stolen from one citizen to entice another, I trust tomorrow will give me the strength to oil my 2nd Amendment tools for the coming battle. I fear the nation is about to be lost. I hear the voices of the founders, and they call all good men to the aid of their country for the sake of Liberty.
Gentlemen, when shall One Million Long Gun Owners meet at West Potomac Park?
And to think we were all so thrilled that SNL accidentally told the truth about the bailout. Now that skit just makes McCain look even dumber than the Democrats. I bet they get that thing online again STAT. “Here’s what McCain wants to do: give money to Arson Boy.”
There are plenty of differences. Health care being a “right” is a key one. $300 billion will be a drop in the bucket compared to nationalized health care. And seriously, you think Obama won’t come up with his own buyback plan? If he gets his way, home ownership will be a right too, whether you have a job or not.
McCain’s socialist buyback plan is the least of my worries right now. I’ll worry about that if he gets elected.
Anybody else ready to get some momentum going for tax revolt?
California is nearly bankrupt, as is the Federal Government, which is the largest employer in the United States. Meanwhile we have the largest expansion of new immigrant numbers in our nation’s history, both legal and illegal, over the last forty years.
How did we get to here? The level of government incompetence is astounding, from the federal to the local, from the immigration lawlessness to the judicial tyranny. From the 66,000 page tax code to the Los Angeles freeways covered in gang graffiti. I could go on and on and on.
Our nation’s slide toward socialism may require us to fight back with more than our blogs and our votes, and I’m thinking tax revolt could get their attention in Washington.
Imagine replacing the whole of Congress with some of our nation’s heroes at Walter Reed? A ten percent flat tax like they have in Estonia (as mentioned by Stephen Moore today on Medved, who shilled for McCain early and often. Thanks for nothing Medved)? Imagine free market health insurance purchased in the same way as car insurance, with no expectation that your employer (i.e., the Federal Government for a growing percentage of American workers) is on the hook for your coverage?
Here I am working almost all night to finish twenty DVDs for a client, and I get the feeling that my elected officials in Congress hardly work. I’m a small businessman desperate for some tax relief, especially the arcane and profoundly ridiculous tax code that my tax accountant can barely figure out, so I pay him a small fortune every year to sort through the mess.
I get so mad I can hardly see straight when I think about Oprah and Buffett and all their Hollywood friends shilling for Obama, because I don’t believe for a moment that he’s not going to do everything he can to raise my family’s taxes.
Wait. I got an idea. How about Oprah, Buffett, Matt Damon and Arianna Huffington, as well as all their liberal friends, try living on the $150K per year in combined income (before taxes) that my family lives on and give the rest of their money to the government? Like Biden said, it’s the patriotic thing to do.
It’s not surprising that his “game-changer” is a socialist pissing contest with Obama. McCain has no ideology save a vague sense of national “service” and jingoism. He is a decent man but he is no conservative. There has not been a true conservative presidential candidate since Goldwater. Reagan came close. Is it pure coincidence that he is one of the most fondly remembered presidents of all time? Had McCain taken his cue from either of them and stood up for the majority of the country that opposed the bailout, he would be winning right now.
McCain’s plan has me too disgusted to even think about it. I haven’t lived in America since 2006 (expatriated to Tokyo) but I was planning on getting an absentee ballet. Palin is a ray of light, but I still don’t see her as any kind of conservative savior. Even with her, I can’t be bothered to vote for either of these idiots. Hopefully there will be a sea change, and national leaders will come along whom I can be proud of. For the time being, I’m washing my hands of it all and staying abroad for the foreseeable future.
I’d miss the cheap sushi anyway.