Hillary's $1 billion foreclosure bailout

Good morning, again. Hillary Clinton today is rolling out a series of housing proposals, including a crackdown on unscrupulous mortgage brokers and a $1 billion fund to help homeowners avoid foreclosure. Highlights from the AP:

--"Presidential hopeful Hillary Rodham Clinton is calling for penalties on unscrupulous mortgage brokers who engage in predatory lending and a $1 billion federal fund to help homeowners avoid foreclosure."
--Clinton: "The unfortunate fact is, many people have gotten into the mortgage market who are being exploited and abused by boiler-room mortgage-lending operations that are just like selling phony penny stocks or the old traveling salesmen with the snake oil."
--"Clinton also will propose a $1 billion federal fund for local and state programs that help at-risk homeowners avoid foreclosures. She said those programs could help the 'unsuspecting families' linked to unfair mortgages."
--"And she also planned to demand lenders remove early payment penalties attached to some mortgages."

Thoughts? Insights? Questions? Comments?
Photo Credit: AP

Comments

[Dr. JwB]

So, let me get this straight: If I go out and buy a house I cannot afford, then the government will give me money so I can pay for it? Sweet!

[xtine]

Exactly. My husband and I stayed out of the housing market because, even at 6-figure combined salaries we knew we could not afford a $600,000 house. Now we are forced to pay for some other pinhead's stupidity. Yet again, taxpayers with a head on their shoulders are forced to pay for people who can't do simple math. If she intends to go through with this she will lose my vote.

[F. R.]

Here we go. God forbid that we put some of the blame on buyers who didn't bother to take an hour or two to read the contract on the biggest investment of their lives.

Let the housing market crash already! Most of these people won't be able to save their homes, even after federal aid.

How are we supposed to supplement a $4,000.00/month mortgage for millions of SoCal buyers. That's what they get for trying to live beyond their means.

[mm]

Hurry up and get in line -- Hillary's giving out more and more entitlements for votes ... Once again, Hillary is pandering to social bloodsuckers.

I'm tired of paying for people who want freebies. I'm still trying to save up for my first house!

[Mike in SoCal]

People should not have taken out mortgages that they couldn't afford. Let the market correct itself already. Hillary is convincing me NOT to vote for her with this ridiculous bailout she's proposing.

[Chris in Sacramento]

So HRC thinks that middle-class families like mine that held off buying homes these past few years should subsidize the gamblers who went all-in? There aren't many things that would make me consider voting Republican, but a Democratic-led bailout of the housing market's risk-takers is one.

[Rob]

TAX and Spend, TAX and Spend, TAX and Spend. God help us in November...

[Cal]

The whole housing episode is going to be very seductive for stupid people, you get to bail out big business and registered voters with taxpayer money and look like you are doing everyone a favor.

What could possibly... possibly... be wrong with that.

[Bubbles]

wanna help working families? overturn the new bankruptcy laws, lets these people walk away from their over-priced homes paid for with liar loans ... offer incentives to families and working people who want to buy these REO or abandoned homes, don't help the people who caused this mess, help those left out of home ownership by all this nonsense

[Jim D.]

When did Democrats give up on personal responsibility?
Why should those of us who have made conservative financial decisions be burdened with paying for those who have not?
Has Hillary determined when we will stop paying for the financial mistakes of irresponsible people?
Perhaps Hillary will next propose that we setup a fund to reimburse people for their gambling losses!

[jemarqu]

This is why I am voting for Ron Paul. Like others leaving comments, I am trying to save for my first house. I am also waiting for prices to correct so that I can borrow an amount of money that I intend on repaying.

There should be consequence to making poor decisions. My parents lost their house in the 90s and no one was there to bail them out. We survived and I learned a lot from their choices. Even though I'm in a position to buy now I am going to wait until things have corrected.

[jt]

As if our welfare system is not enough to panhandlers, we are going to give more of OUR tax $$$s for those can't be responsible for their own decisions?? THAT is vote buying at her best.. I guess I am going quit my job and get in line with them.

[Matt]

what a joke!!!! talk about a waste of tax payer $$$, throw good money over bad!!! Use that money for the poor, much better used.

[albert]

Not a single comment here in support of stupid Hillary proposal. And they call us lefty liberals. LOL.
This leaves me in the bind. I do not to vote Republican , because they have changed so much , started 1 trillion dollars war , killed 4000 of your soldiers and how many people of Iraq, God only knows.
Obama ? I dont think so.
Housing market should crash, and our goverment will have to learn how to manage without ridiculously high property taxes income, due to the boxes from hell being purchased for 750k.

[RZ]

It's hard enough for a member of the middle class to buy a decent home in a decent area these days with the ridiculously sky-high prices. All this plan would do is make it even harder by reducing the number of foreclosures. I agree that something should be done about predatory lending, but I also think that people should take responsibility for their decisions, including the dumb ones.

[AKK]

I wasn't stupid enough to get suckered into a mortgage I couldn't afford. Like other commenters, I'm saving my pennies so that one day I can afford a home.

VOTE RON PAUL 2008!

[Christine]

It will be easy to pay for the bailout, all we need to do is stop giving money to oil companies making record profits with $3/gallon gasoline and subsidies to billionaire farmers. Better yet, she can give some of that money to me so I can buy my first house.

[Mike]

You folks just don't get it.....she's a tax and spend Democrat....your taxes and she'll decide on how she spends it....

This woman has no honor, in her personal life or public life. Is this a person who should be "commander in chief". I don't think so.

I can't stand thinking about another 8 years of Bush-Clinton-Bush-Clinton.

God help us.

[www.BetterVillage.com, XYZ, PDq.]

She certainly caused a ruckus. The strategists are probably not dumb (probably)... so if they knew the issue would be divisive, and they'd lose the don't-bail-em-out voters... maybe their intention was just to pump the Clinton brand out under the assumption that no press is bad press? That they would do this on a highly anticipated Bernanke day could be significant as well. Oh Bernanke, let us pray you don't have a gas pain today that causes you to wince gently and drive us into a frenzy of renewed belly-button contemplation.

[Roger Moore]

In addition to being blatant pandering, Hillary's proposal is also completely inadequate to accomplish its goals. The S&L crisis cost over $100 billion to bail out, and the current mortgage mess would probably be more expensive still. A $1 billion program is nothing but a feel good proposal that will have no real impact on anything.

[Renée]

We are Los Angles homeowners with a disproportionate paper profit due to the escalation of prices in recent years. Our daughter and son-in-law have been struggling to purchase a first home and we have been urging them to wait until and unless they can reasonably afford a mortgage.

The government's interference with the housing market will punish them for their self-discipline and reinforce what we consider the wrong lesson: Indulge your wants at any cost; if you get in over your head, a genie will appear to pay your debts.

I currently favor Hillary as the Democratic candidate, but would not vote for anyone who supports a bailout for borrowers who took risks in the real estate market.

[Sheryl]

So now working Americans are not only supposed to pay the DOCTOR BILLS of everybody else in the country, WE'RE SUPPOSED TO MAKE THEIR HOUSE PAYMENTS???

This kind of bull**** is why I NEVER vote for Democrats. Because they all listen to Karl Marx loving boneheads like Hilary Clinton.

[Alma M]

For several years now I have thought people were crazy for buying these OBVIOUS over-priced homes. However people get too wrapped up & let their emotions make their decisions in making purchases they could not afford.

Why should we the tax payers that didnt get wrapped up in this buying frenzy have to bail out the others?

I have never ben a Hillary supporter.....this is just a reminder why!

[Seymour]

Don't be fooled. This move is not simply to protect the stupid home buyer but to protect the stupid banks who bought the stupid mortgages. It's a move to prop up the economy, not merely a socialist move to protect the voters.

All that said, I don't think it would work and in no way do I support it (or Clinton, for that matter).

And to the "tax and spend" guy . . . at least the democrats try to raise funds before they spend money. Republicans overspend with nothing in the bank.

[jg]

I have always voted for Democrats. When Chuck Schumer first mentioned something about a bailout for foreclosed homeowners, I wrote him a letter saying that I am 31 years old, I have saved money and spent wisely my entire life, I did not buy a house I could not afford and I am proud of all of that. I pay 52% of my income in taxes because I have no tax deductions. Last year I paid about 60% of the federal and state taxes that George W. and Laura Bush did, despite the fact that they made 5 times what I do. I have played by all of the rules.

And now the government is going to go ahead and reward irresponsible people? With my tax money? I have had it. Hillary just lost my vote, and if the Democrats are serious about this, I'm going to be serious about voting for somebody else this time around... Iraq or no Iraq.