Oct 26 2011

Do No HARP – 2

Further reading into the President’s new and improved HARP program to help troubled, underwater homeowners refinance into lower interest rate mortgages that we touched on yesterday reveals even more gooder goodness for the banks and further proof that this is a bank bailout and not a stimulus.

The first part, and this is a biggie, is that those new mortgages with their shiny new interest rates also magically convert into recourse mortgages instead of non-recourse.  That is, with a traditional mortgage today, if you default on the mortgage and the bank forecloses on your property, any deficiency between the auction price of the home and the remaining balance of the loan is eaten by the bank.

By converting these mortgages (which are already vastly underwater mind you) into recourse loans, that balance will now follow you around for all eternity or until bankruptcy court. Anyone who agrees to one of Obama’s new mortgages instead of going into foreclosure and living in the house rent free for 18 months needs to have their head examined.  Anyone who does this needs to realize that they have just signed their entire life away to the bank.

The next part is no less serious, but is more of a direct gift to the banks and only affects you as a taxpayer rather than a homeowner.

FHFA moved to protect lenders from having to buy back loans if underwriting problems are later found. “Of all the barriers, this may be the most significant,” said Gene Sperling, director of the White House National Economic Council.

Basically, the banks can keep right on going with their sloppy and fraudulent mortgage writing procedures and not suffer any consequences from their actions. When the mortgage fails, the bank doesn’t suffer, we the taxpayers do.

Thankfully, so few people will qualify for these new regulations and hopefully those who do will be told by you, dear reader, that doing this is such a terrible idea that the overall impact of Obama’s new mortgage plan on the taxpayers will be minimal.

Oct 06 2010

The upcoming elections? I’m not worried.

A lot of Democrats are very worried about the upcoming election on November 2nd.  They should be. A good many of them stand to lose their job. I, however, am not that worried. I think this country really needs the good shellacking the Democrats are about to get. Here’s why:

The Democrats need a swift kick in the ass. They’ve squandered the 6 months or so they had a majority. (Due to various deaths of Senators, they haven’t had the full 60 votes the whole time). I like some of what they’ve done, but their big accomplishments have still only been half assed. They keep walking around in their majority, saying to the Republicans, “Please don’t hurt me!”

Meanwhile, the Republican’s have gone off the lunatic fringe!

In Delaware, we have Sarah Palin 2.0, also known as Christine O’Donnell, who once was a witch… but then not… and wanted to be a Harri Krishna, but couldn’t give up cheeseburgers. She’s also single and doesn’t believe in masturbation….. or paying taxes.

Then there is Sharron Angel, the Tea Party backed candidate for Senate running against Harry Reid in Nevada. This is a woman that has suggested, repeatedly, that if the election doesn’t go her way, people should resort to their “2nd Amendment rights” to take Harry Reid out. I don’t know if there is a specific law against calling for the assassination of Senators, but there should be.  Sharron Angel has also said she wants to end Social Security and Medicare…. except when she’s questioned about it, she says “No! I want to SAVE social security!”

Then there is Rand Paul, who was against Medicare before he was for it…. but stay tuned on this one because I’m sure it will change again.

But here is why I fully support all of the above candidates. They are so extreme and so unqualified that the electorate will finally see the Tea party and Republican party for what they really are.

Even the Republican’s “Pledge to America” is painful to read… not because of the meat of it’s content (it has very little of that), but because it’s 64 pages of the Republicans clearly not getting it. Even in House Minority Leader John Boehner’s words “American’s aren’t ready for solutions”

If the Republicans get a majority in this election, we’re going to have 2 full years of congressional investigations into whether President Obama lied to his 2nd grade teacher about needing to go number 1 or number 2 and absolutely none of the Republican agenda will be able to get done. (They aren’t able to take enough seats for a filibuster proof majority)

At the end of 2 years of Republican pettiness, they’ll proudly march into the Presidential election fielding such candidates as Mitt the Plastic, Palin the GILF, DeMint the Mean, or Huckabee the Dope to go up against an embattled but still smart President Obama.

It will be two years of dark ages, but at the end of it, the Tea party will be capsized and the Republicans will hopefully be smart enough to reform into the socially libertarian/fiscally prudent party I’d like them to be.