Will Bush Join the Housing Bailout Bunch?

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Unfortunately, messiah-complex liberals like Dodd and Frank don't understand supply and demand. With the excess demand that was created through liar loans, low interest rates from the Fed, and money handed out through Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, et al, demand for housing went up and prices skyrocketed.
Instead of letting more Americans "share in the american dream of owning a home", they simply created an atmosphere of speculation, and made home ownership too expensive for regular folks. Now those that bought homes are deeply in debt due to this excess demand and the resulting huge price tag of buying homes.
If uneducated, economically challenged liberals like Dodd and Frank really want to help regular Americans, they would let the market work. If the market was allowed to work, prices would come down and Americans would not have to go so deeply into debt just to buy a "starter home". They might even be able to purchase one day and not have to get two or three jobs just to afford the payments. But Dodd/Frank, and other messiah-wannabes stick their ignorant, naive noses into it, all they will do is force many americans into being perpetual renters.

bob of CA 9:51PM June 10, 2008

Mr. Pethokoukis -
Bill Gross is a dirty piece of scum. He and his Wall Street cronies are full of fraud. They have ruined our economy! Now, they are crying for a bailout.
I HOPE THESE CROOKS ROT IN HELL. Even that would be too good for them!
Have a good day,
Barb Hollingsworth
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GbCsCrCyR7Y
P.S. Bill Gross and his corrupt PIMCO friends want ME (the taxpayer) to bail out those who bought a house at the high price, put no money down, paid no interest for the first two years, then used it as an ATM machine to buy SUVs, plasma TVs, jacuzzi hot tubs and vacations to Kauai. Why should Wall Street ask for a public bailout? So Bill Gross and his cronies can make a windfall profit on their toxic, mortgage-backed securities? Let Wall Street do the bailing. Let the insolvent banks eat their own losses - and THROW THE SCUMBAGS IN JAIL! Hasn't the Street ripped the clueless investor for enough money already?

barbara hollingsworth of CA 1:55PM May 18, 2008

If you need to give a tax credit to provide an incentive for people to buy a foreclosures, then what the market is really telling us is the price is still too high. There are plenty of people who will buy homes if the price is right. Subsidizing housing artificially props up prices where they become unsustainable by normal market forces. We need prices levels that are sustainable by normal market forces not tax subsidies. It’s not fair for the prudent and the savers of our society to bailout the reckless and foolish.
The promoters of this bill make a big deal out of the fact some people don't have equity in their homes. The bill wants to re-finance loans so homeowners have a 10% immediate equity saying these people need an incentive to pay their mortgage. Well, I know there were thousands of people in recent years that took out 80/20 loans with no down payment and of course no equity. These folks didn't seem to need an incentive then when they signed their name on the contracts. Lenders didn't seem to mind underwriting loans for people with no equity. Buying and lending on homes with no equity is major speculation. No bailouts.

Ryan of CA 5:13PM May 13, 2008

Daniel David, there is already a myriad of regulation that oversees mortgages. However, you have yet to put any blame on the consumer. If you see that you can't afford a mortgage or that you are seeing your lender fudge the numbers so that you can get the home, or that you are seeing that you are not required to put money down, or that you are feeling an overall "unease" about the deal, then you have one option that seems to not be used by consumers of late: walk away from the deal. The Congress can right all kinds of regulation, but there is no regulation that can dole out some common sense on the part of the homebuyer/seller.

Chris of AZ 12:58PM May 13, 2008

President Bush "may" be giving policy difference "gifts" to McCain for the purpose of advancing McCain in his quest to distance and differentiate from Bush, with all of them thinking the Senate will stop any of the proposals anyway (like per Dan Clifton's opinion above.)
Democrats should be focusing on REGULATION, though, that helps keep average folks out of hot water in the first place with mortgages---rather than on taxpayer bailouts of either lenders or borrowers after the fact. This missing regulation is why we had the darn sub-prime crisis to begin with.

Daniel David of NM 6:02PM May 12, 2008