Dem Frontrunners Want to Close The Barn Door
From Reuters:
By the time any government agency gets a chance to implement and "clamp down" the worst offenders will all be closed or bankrupt. Unfortunately, Obama and Edwards jumped on the band wagon with "me too" proposals.
Unfortunately, it gets worse. Clinton wants you and I to pay for the folly of those people that drove this crisis in the first place: the people who took loans they couldn't pay to buy homes they couldn't afford.
All I can say is...wow. Not only is the money proposed not enough to make a difference, but what is another government attempt at a bail-out going to teach people that voluntarily put their own financial well-being at risk to satisfy their own ego and greed? Tax payers are already going to pay for this indirectly in the case of a recession, so why should we have to subsidize their stupidity directly? What's next? Am I going to get a bill for Lindsay Lohan's rehab?
And WTF is Obama talking about? He's going to promote a full disclosure law? We already have those, and people ignored them thinking they would sell before the ARM reset. Is there any Democratic candidate looking less Presidential right now?
Democratic presidential front-runner Sen. Hillary Clinton on Tuesday proposed clamping down on lending abuses and providing more aid to families who face losing their homes.
By the time any government agency gets a chance to implement and "clamp down" the worst offenders will all be closed or bankrupt. Unfortunately, Obama and Edwards jumped on the band wagon with "me too" proposals.
The Obama campaign said he would pursue legislation that details the mortgage costs initially and down the road and that he "understands the tremendous impact these abusive practices are having on American families, the housing market and the overall economy."
The campaign for former Sen. John Edwards, who is third in polls of the Democratic race, quickly countered that Clinton's plan failed to go far enough and he has already offered "a real plan to punish predatory lenders and protect homeowners, and we're glad Senator Clinton has chosen to follow his lead."
Unfortunately, it gets worse. Clinton wants you and I to pay for the folly of those people that drove this crisis in the first place: the people who took loans they couldn't pay to buy homes they couldn't afford.
The New York senator, on the campaign trail in New Hampshire, also proposed a $1 billion fund to supplement state programs that help homeowners catch up on mortgage payments, renegotiate loan terms or provide financial counseling.
She pressed for eliminating penalties for early repayment of mortgages, which are often associated with less traditional home loans to individuals who fall short of qualifying for prime loans and turn to more expensive subprime mortgages.
...
Clinton said $1 billion should also be set aside for state and local trust funds that help subsidize low-income housing. The plan would be paid for with savings from improving federal property management and reducing improper government payments, her campaign said.
All I can say is...wow. Not only is the money proposed not enough to make a difference, but what is another government attempt at a bail-out going to teach people that voluntarily put their own financial well-being at risk to satisfy their own ego and greed? Tax payers are already going to pay for this indirectly in the case of a recession, so why should we have to subsidize their stupidity directly? What's next? Am I going to get a bill for Lindsay Lohan's rehab?
And WTF is Obama talking about? He's going to promote a full disclosure law? We already have those, and people ignored them thinking they would sell before the ARM reset. Is there any Democratic candidate looking less Presidential right now?
Comments
Democrats say the darndest things!
So now the U.S citizenry / investors are supposed to subsidize the misadventures of greedy flippers!
UPDATE 2-Democratic Senators urge GSE investment cap relief
The regulator for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac should consider easing a cap on the companies' investment holdings so they can buy more loans in the troubled mortgage market, two leading Democratic senators said on Tuesday.
Such a move would "allow Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to provide needed stability to the secondary mortgage market," said Sen. Charles Schumer, chairman of a Senate subcommittee on housing.
Fannie and Freddie, the nation's two largest sources of mortgage finance, have limits on their combined $1.4 trillion investment portfolio of mortgages, which generate a large share of their profits. The Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight (OFHEO) imposed the temporary cap on the two home finance companies' investments while they emerge from accounting scandals.
Sen. Christopher Dodd, chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, said in a statement, "It may be appropriate, consistent with safe and sound practices as determined by the regulator, to ease the temporary regulatory cap on Fannie and Freddie's mortgage portfolio."
An OFHEO spokeswoman declined to comment on the statements...
..
No Senator, it's not appropriate. What is appropriate is for you do-gooders to not throw good money after bad. A better use of our tax dollars is to start prosecuting, from the top down, the people that drove this train off the end of a cliff. You can start with all those companies that flat out LIED to their investors about the security of their investments. Forget about bailing out the poor folks who screwed themselves, nothing you can do can save them at this point.
Freddie and Fannie have both stated earlier this year that they are interested in "cherry picking" existing investor held mortgages, but not much else.
And $ 1 billion ain't going to go very far in helping.