Republicans Want Low-Income Renters to Pay for Mortgage Bailout

[marmar]

from AlterNet's PEEK:



Republicans Want Low-Income Renters to Pay for Mortgage Bailout

Posted by Lindsay Beyerstein, Majikthise at 7:01 AM on May 19, 2008.

Reverse Robin Hood GOP wants the poor to pay for the mistakes of the rich.




The Republican ranking member from the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee wants to pay for Chris Dodd's mortgage bailout program out of a trust fund for housing the poorest of the poor, according to the National Coalition for Low Income Housing:

WASHINGTON, DC - Responding to pressure from Ranking Member Senator Richard Shelby (R-AL), the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee appears to be on the verge of diverting funds designated for a housing trust fund for housing for the poorest Americans to pay for Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd’s (D-CT) new program to refinance homeowners facing foreclosure.

In his bill “The Federal Housing Finance Regulatory Reform Act of 2008,” Chairman Dodd proposes to allow the Federal Housing Administration to insure refinanced mortgages of homeowners who face foreclosure. The Congressional Budget Office estimates this new program creates a potential liability for the federal government of $1.7 billion.

Reports are that Senator Shelby will only agree to the new FHA program if it is paid for by non-taxpayer funds. Senator Dodd’s bill also creates a housing trust fund with resources from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to build or preserve rental housing for extremely low and very low income people. Senator Shelby wants those funds to be used to pay for the new FHA program instead. (NCLIH)

Bailing out mortgage-holders sounds progressive until you realize that you're also bailing out the irresponsible lenders who caused the problem in the first place. They're just going to do it again, knowing that the state will pay them, even if their customers can't.

"Too big to fail" is a nice way of saying "corporate welfare."

Taking the money from the poorest of the poor to bail out sub-prime sharks and their customers is just perverse.


http://www.alternet.org/blogs/peek/85766/

[gateley]

1. That sounds about right.

And too many low income renters will be voting for McCain in November. How they don't see what this party has done to them is beyond me.

[roguevalley]

8. here's a great commercial for red state low income voters.

[PDJane]

2. It's the neo-con way.

The third world has been fattening their coffers for a very long time; it's just more of the same.

[shireen]

3. these people make me sick!

I'm reading Ravi Batra's latest book, The New Golden Age, and in the first couple of chapters, he outlines how those filthy parasites have been sucking the life out of low- and middle-income people. We know that it's being going on, but to read the first 2 chapters about how those bastards are doing it is absolutely sickening. Shelby's evil little scam, outlined in the article, is a prime example of that.

I hope that there's some publicity about this in AL so that jackass will get kicked out of the Senate come next elections.

[marmar]

4. "these people make me sick! "

That was the first thing that crossed my mind when I found this story. :argh:

[acmavm]

10. They aren't known as the 'Predator Class' for nothing.

[Brewman_Jax]

5. Of course they do

when have the rethugicans and their supporters been held to account for ANYTHING during Bush's* two terms?

[gratuitous]

6. Poor folks are used to getting the shitty end of the stick

So if they're screwed again to bail out GOP party financiers, what's the diff? It's not like these patriotic Murikins are going to vote for a woman or a Muslim, or a woman in muslin. They'll maintain their proud independence and vote for another four years of beatings, and believe the guy holding the whip when he says it's all the immigrants' fault. Or the gays' fault. Or women's fault.

[DadOf2LittleAngels]

7. And in the end the people who get the most screwed over

Are the ones who made prudent housing decisions over the past several years

"Bailing out mortgage-holders sounds progressive until you realize that you're also bailing out the irresponsible lenders who caused the problem in the first place. They're just going to do it again, knowing that the state will pay them, even if their customers can't."

Seeing this disaster way ahead of time I bought a small condo that needed a ton of TLC. After fixing it up (gave myself 3 years) I am going to start looking for a new home (now that prices are coming down) and rent out my condo until prices recover enough to sell it (Ill get the mortgage plus about 10% for the rent).

Now when they bail all these folks out both lenders and owners who made stupid decisions the markets will, again, be artificially inflated making home ownership hard for many..

They should make sure people who lose their home get help finding a new roof, the rental plan is a great help and will help over the long term stabilize the industry.

[alfredo]

9. Some of those mortgages are for rental property.