BretLudwig
November 23rd 08, 09:27 PM
Media ignoring Bush's jihad against down payments
>>"I keep reading articles trying to explain the mortgage meltdown, but
the mainstream media's coverage almost utterly ignores George W. Bush's
war on down payments in his effort to boost minority homeownership by 5.5
million. On Google News, the only reference over the last month to Bush's
5.5 million household goal are columns by Rod Dreher and Ross Douthat,
both of whom no doubt heard about it from me.
It's like that Star Trek episode where an evil computer takes over, but
Kirk and Spock make it overload its circuits by posing logical conundrums
for it to figure out like:
The next thing I will say is a lie.
The last thing I said is the truth.
Or maybe not exactly that (it's been 40 years since I watched that
episode), but close.
Anyway, in regard to Bush's plan to expand minority homeownership by
debauching traditonal credit standards, the media reason (read with
Stephen Hawking-style computer accent):
Bush is evil.
Minorities are good.
DOES NOT COMPUTE.
Best not to think about it or smoke will come out of our brains. Let
us never mention it again.
I did notice that James Bovard figured out what was going on over three
years ago in a June 11, 2005 column for Lew Rockwell entitled "Bush
Profiteering from Housing Defaults." It also explains what the Nehemiah
Corp. is up to:
President Bush is determined to end the prejudice against people who
want to buy a home but don’t have any money. Since he became president
the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has spent more than
$120 billion. HUD public-housing projects continue to devastate poor
neighborhoods. HUD largesse to local governments continues to finance the
confiscation and demolition of private homes, and HUD programs continue to
spur fraud and corruption around the nation.
Bush has done almost nothing to reduce HUD’s damage to America.
Instead, he is devoting himself to expanding home giveaways. He proclaimed
on June 16, 2003,
Homeownership is more than just a symbol of the American dream; it
is an important part of our way of life. Core American values of
individuality, thrift, responsibility, and self-reliance are embodied in
homeownership.
In Bush’s eyes, self-reliance is so wonderful that the government
should subsidize it.
Bush could be exposing taxpayers to tens of billions of dollars of
losses, luring thousands of low- and moderate-income people to the
heartbreak of losing their first house, and risking wrecking entire
neighborhoods. Bush’s housing initiatives – especially his “American
Dream Down Payment Act” to give free down payments to selected home
buyers – were key planks in his reelection campaign. He is also pushing
Congress to enact a law to permit the feds to give zero-down-payment
mortgages.
The Bush “Dream Act” and the zero-down-payment plan are modeled
after “down-payment assistance programs” that have proliferated in
recent years. These programs, often engineered by nonprofit groups,
routinely involve a home builder giving a “gift” to the nonprofit,
which provides a home buyer with money for the down payment. The price of
the house is sometimes increased by the same amount as the builder’s
“gift.” Almost all the mortgages created with down-payment assistance
end up being underwritten or guaranteed by either the Federal Housing
Administration (FHA) or Ginnie Mae (the Government National Mortgage
Association).
Free down payments carry catastrophic risks. The default rate on
mortgages from the largest down-payment-assistance organization, Nehemiah
Corp., is 25 times higher than the nationwide mortgage-delinquency rate,
according to the HUD inspector general. The default rate on Nehemiah
mortgages quadrupled between 1999 and 2002, reaching almost 20 percent.
The I.G. warned that permitting the Federal Housing Administration to
insure mortgages made with gifts from down-payment organizations is
“endangering the FHA insurance pool.” HUD currently has no idea how
many of the loans that the FHA is underwriting are closed with
down-payment gifts.
Bush began pushing his American Dream Down Payment plan in 2002. The
administration’s rhetoric echoed the 1968 Housing Act, which nullified
state and local restrictions on where blacks and other groups could live.
A June 17, 2002, White House Fact Sheet declared that Bush’s agenda
will help tear down the barriers to homeownership that stand in
the way of our nation’s African-American, Hispanic, and other minority
families by providing down-payment assistance. The single biggest barrier
to home-ownership is accumulating funds for a down payment.
The Bush administration sounded as if requiring down payments is the
new version of Jim Crow laws."<<
http://isteve.blogspot.com/2008/11/media-ignoring-bushs-jihad-against-down.html
--
Message posted using http://www.talkaboutaudio.com/group/rec.audio.opinion/
More information at http://www.talkaboutaudio.com/faq.html
>>"I keep reading articles trying to explain the mortgage meltdown, but
the mainstream media's coverage almost utterly ignores George W. Bush's
war on down payments in his effort to boost minority homeownership by 5.5
million. On Google News, the only reference over the last month to Bush's
5.5 million household goal are columns by Rod Dreher and Ross Douthat,
both of whom no doubt heard about it from me.
It's like that Star Trek episode where an evil computer takes over, but
Kirk and Spock make it overload its circuits by posing logical conundrums
for it to figure out like:
The next thing I will say is a lie.
The last thing I said is the truth.
Or maybe not exactly that (it's been 40 years since I watched that
episode), but close.
Anyway, in regard to Bush's plan to expand minority homeownership by
debauching traditonal credit standards, the media reason (read with
Stephen Hawking-style computer accent):
Bush is evil.
Minorities are good.
DOES NOT COMPUTE.
Best not to think about it or smoke will come out of our brains. Let
us never mention it again.
I did notice that James Bovard figured out what was going on over three
years ago in a June 11, 2005 column for Lew Rockwell entitled "Bush
Profiteering from Housing Defaults." It also explains what the Nehemiah
Corp. is up to:
President Bush is determined to end the prejudice against people who
want to buy a home but don’t have any money. Since he became president
the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has spent more than
$120 billion. HUD public-housing projects continue to devastate poor
neighborhoods. HUD largesse to local governments continues to finance the
confiscation and demolition of private homes, and HUD programs continue to
spur fraud and corruption around the nation.
Bush has done almost nothing to reduce HUD’s damage to America.
Instead, he is devoting himself to expanding home giveaways. He proclaimed
on June 16, 2003,
Homeownership is more than just a symbol of the American dream; it
is an important part of our way of life. Core American values of
individuality, thrift, responsibility, and self-reliance are embodied in
homeownership.
In Bush’s eyes, self-reliance is so wonderful that the government
should subsidize it.
Bush could be exposing taxpayers to tens of billions of dollars of
losses, luring thousands of low- and moderate-income people to the
heartbreak of losing their first house, and risking wrecking entire
neighborhoods. Bush’s housing initiatives – especially his “American
Dream Down Payment Act” to give free down payments to selected home
buyers – were key planks in his reelection campaign. He is also pushing
Congress to enact a law to permit the feds to give zero-down-payment
mortgages.
The Bush “Dream Act” and the zero-down-payment plan are modeled
after “down-payment assistance programs” that have proliferated in
recent years. These programs, often engineered by nonprofit groups,
routinely involve a home builder giving a “gift” to the nonprofit,
which provides a home buyer with money for the down payment. The price of
the house is sometimes increased by the same amount as the builder’s
“gift.” Almost all the mortgages created with down-payment assistance
end up being underwritten or guaranteed by either the Federal Housing
Administration (FHA) or Ginnie Mae (the Government National Mortgage
Association).
Free down payments carry catastrophic risks. The default rate on
mortgages from the largest down-payment-assistance organization, Nehemiah
Corp., is 25 times higher than the nationwide mortgage-delinquency rate,
according to the HUD inspector general. The default rate on Nehemiah
mortgages quadrupled between 1999 and 2002, reaching almost 20 percent.
The I.G. warned that permitting the Federal Housing Administration to
insure mortgages made with gifts from down-payment organizations is
“endangering the FHA insurance pool.” HUD currently has no idea how
many of the loans that the FHA is underwriting are closed with
down-payment gifts.
Bush began pushing his American Dream Down Payment plan in 2002. The
administration’s rhetoric echoed the 1968 Housing Act, which nullified
state and local restrictions on where blacks and other groups could live.
A June 17, 2002, White House Fact Sheet declared that Bush’s agenda
will help tear down the barriers to homeownership that stand in
the way of our nation’s African-American, Hispanic, and other minority
families by providing down-payment assistance. The single biggest barrier
to home-ownership is accumulating funds for a down payment.
The Bush administration sounded as if requiring down payments is the
new version of Jim Crow laws."<<
http://isteve.blogspot.com/2008/11/media-ignoring-bushs-jihad-against-down.html
--
Message posted using http://www.talkaboutaudio.com/group/rec.audio.opinion/
More information at http://www.talkaboutaudio.com/faq.html