McCain’s $300 Billion Mortgage Bailout

       
By J.R. Hoeft
Published October 8th, 2008  

In last night’s debate, I was taken aback when I heard Sen. Barack Obama, the Democrat, call for tax cuts for the middle class in order to ease their financial burden and thus, perhaps, enabling them to keep their mortgage, contrasted with Sen. John McCain, the Republican, who called for a $300 billion adventure by the government to get further into the mortgage business.

Curious, I went to the McCain web site today to see more details on the plan:

The McCain Resurgence Plan would purchase mortgages directly from homeowners and mortgage servicers, and replace them with manageable, fixed-rate mortgages that will keep families in their homes. By purchasing the existing, failing mortgages the McCain resurgence plan will eliminate uncertainty over defaults, support the value of mortgage-backed derivatives and alleviate risks that are freezing financial markets.

The McCain resurgence plan would be available to mortgage holders that:

* Live in the home (primary residence only)

* Can prove their creditworthiness at the time of the original loan (no falsifications and provided a down payment).

The new mortgage would be an FHA-guaranteed fixed-rate mortgage at terms manageable for the homeowner. The direct cost of this plan would be roughly $300 billion because the purchase of mortgages would relieve homeowners of “negative equity” in some homes. Funds provided by Congress in recent financial market stabilization bill can be used for this purpose; indeed by stabilizing mortgages it will likely be possible to avoid some purposes previously assumed needed in that bill.

Perhaps Nina Easton, a Fox News contributor, said it best: those who were truly defeated in last night’s debate were fiscal conservatives who saw their ship keel over and slip beneath the waves.

The only saving grace to this plan is that it purports to be part of the existing and already approved $700B giveaway.

Do fiscal conservatives even exist anymore?

Comments

4 Responses to “McCain’s $300 Billion Mortgage Bailout”

  1. Obama a member of the “New Party”? A radical-left wing political party? | Bearing Drift :: Virginia Politics and Podcasts on October 8th, 2008 at 7:35 pm

    [...] when I get depressed about McCain being at the top of the GOP ticket, there is something worse to see in Barack [...]

  2. MarkNo Gravatar on October 8th, 2008 at 10:03 pm

    No. With the exception of a few Blue Dog Dems and scared Republicans they have all but ceased to be.

  3. Stephen GunterNo Gravatar on October 9th, 2008 at 10:26 am

    Funny, only a few months ago, when I asked the same question, I was called crazy and fringe… right here on BD… by the supposed conservatives who were declaring themselves moderates…

  4. Brian, The Squeaky WheelNo Gravatar on October 9th, 2008 at 12:12 pm

    This money was already allocated in the $700 billion bil passed by both cnadidates.

    It is not additional money.

Feel free to leave a comment...
and oh, if you want a pic to show with your comment, go get a gravatar!