Subject: Politics
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John McCain’s newly unveiled idea — a buyout of “bad mortgages” to the tune of $300 million — left a lot of viewers bemused about his ideological shape-shifting, and many on the right positively fuming at what they perceived to be the GOP candidate’s suggestion to nationalize a hefty additional portion of America’s mortgages on top of those bundled into securities that are the target of the $700 billion rescue plan passed last week.
For a sampling of reaction on the right to what he sees as McCain’s betrayal of conservative principles, read Doug Bandow’s blog.
Factcheck.org assessed the truthfulness of McCain’s statements about having a new idea for a mortgage buyout after the Nashville debate and gave them failing grades:
McCain proposed to write down the amount owed by over-mortgaged homeowners and claimed the idea as his own: “It’s my proposal, it’s not Sen. Obama’s proposal, it’s not President Bush’s proposal.” But the idea isn’t new. Obama had endorsed something similar two weeks earlier, and authority for the treasury secretary to grant such relief was included in the recently passed $700 billion financial rescue package.
Last night, I was struck by how often McCain appropriated Obama’s phrases verbatim at the town hall meeting, all the while trying to demonstrate how unacceptable the Democratic standard-bearer’s positions are—an act of contortionism that just came off as muddled and underscored the intellectual bankruptcy of McCain’s campaign.
On top of that, McCain apparently was unaware of how persuasive he finds the Illinois senator’s ideas. more
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The second presidential debate just ended. John McCain threw out a new policy proposal tonight that came as a surprise: He announced that he’d direct the Treasury Department to buy up “bad mortgages” to allow homeowners in danger of losing…
Americans all over the nation, political pundits, Wall Street workers, and, I venture to guess, even the president, were stunned Monday afternoon to hear that the bailout bill had been defeated in the U.S. House of Representatives. The bailout had…
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On Friday, President Bush suddenly decided it was okay for Government to make contact with the Market’s Invisible Hand, as long as Government does not slap The Hand’s wrist but instead stuffs It with cash.
Yeah, yeah, so much for the much-vaunted Free Market.
Not so free, as it turns out–someone pays. This time it’s a proposed tab of $700 eye-popping billion. And Wall Street’s losses are to be absorbed by–oh, guess who?
You!
And me, and our offspring and theirs. Because otherwise the economy will completely collapse even further, although we could still be looking at an implosion that will only be good for writers of post-apocalypse novels. But not really, since the publishing and distribution mechanisms are sure to be compromised,
We’ll bail out the financial houses, but so far, if yours is one of the homes being foreclosed — 1,000 a day going down that road here in Southern California — don’t wait around by your mailbox waiting for your bailout check.
That is, if you still have a mailbox.
Oh, Bush has made some noise about maybe-could-be-would-be bailing out homeowners — guess the GOP held a finger to the wind and saw that coddling Wall Street while sticking it to Main Street is dumb-ish election year politics.
Still, searching the interwebs for the Administration’s firmness of resolve on this idea comes up thin.
Anyway, here’s CNN’s take on — the latest early Tuesday Eastern time.
The Dems at least are getting up on their hind legs and calling for homeowner relief and more oversight, and the Bushies are predictably saying hurry, hurry, don’t think too hard about this even though it’s the largest bailout in the history of the world. more
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I was a little premature in celebrating New York’s modest land bank bill, it seems, as it has not yet been signed by the governor. Some sources say he is concerned about the liability to the state of taking ownership…
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National Housing Institute
