Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Well, fix it dear Henry, dear Henry

John McCain's concept of the government bailing out financial institutions is fascinating. The homeowners who have defaulted on loans will be able to refinance with a fixed-rate mortgage through the government.

While I'm impressed with McCain's desire to help registered voters out of their variable rate mess, I'm a little ticked off, too. I have a mortgage which I pay faithfully. So should I default on my loan so I can be helped? I mean, is this all part of the "everyone's a winner" philosophy? Oh my, you were duped by the evil mortgage company...well, we'll help you out because it wasn't your fault you didn't read the fine print. It's never your fault. Everyone gets a gold star. When we're all winners, no one will be.

So back to me. I work very hard to be able to afford my home. Believe me, it's no palatial estate. It's a tiny Cape. Would I like to be able to buy a bigger home? Of course...who wouldn't? But I need to live within my means.

I wish I wasn't this aware. If I went out and bought my dream house with a variable rate mortgage, I'd be so damned happy right now. Mr. McCain, there a lot of us, the majority of us...we the dutiful citizens trying our best to keep our heads above water. Show us that what we've worked for isn't trivial.

Obama's position is that banks who are being helped by the bailout plan should refrain from foreclosing on a homeowner for 90 days on "good faith" to let the homeowner repay. I'm not sure what to think about this. I agree that if the institutions receiving billions shouldn't immediately re-cripple the economy. But again, what message does all this send? Of course, I'm still unconvinced that the bailout plan was a good idea.

Anyway, writing about this is keeping my mind off the Red Sox & Patriots losses. Well, at least until now. Sigh.

16 comments:

Sarah said...

You totally ripped that song off from me.

I agree bailout was silly, but it sort of seems to always go that responsible people get the short end of the stick eh?

bully said...

bail out schmail out - did absolutely nothing. the market is in retreat and there is no end in sight. all it did was give us as taxpayers more liability while simultaneously raising our national debt. the bail out did not stop the market from falling. we could have saved ourselves alot of money if we let the banks and home owners fail and then start over.

let the market economics rule - not prop up a failed business model. of course the gubbermnet (thanks pres carter) brought about the fair housing bill forcing banks to lend money to people who can't afford it. and now the government is shocked that all these people can't make their mortgage payments.

just the tip of the iceberg, a ton of things caused this. i work for an investment firm believe me things are no over.

on a lighter note thanks to joe joe and kathy for the clothes for the twins. coming in quite handy i tells ya!

thanks!

later
.bully

mulderjoe said...

You're always welcome, Bully. Please let me know if you need more clothing and anything else baby-related.

Amy Bennett said...

offer a fixed 4.25 for everyone i say. will put a little extra cash in most homeowners' pockets that they can then spend (or god forbid save). banks get something, which is better than nothing. government can get back to doing what it does well -- stalling bills for so long that nothing actually changes. i don't want to see any more of this fast-acting government dammit.

mulderjoe said...

YEAH! Amy for President!!!

Joe O...we finally have a write-in candidate!

Horroru said...

Amy, I'm with you on that, great idea. That way those of us that have been responsible will get a break for ONCE!

bully said...

well if this truly is a mortgage crisis then lets fix the mortgage problem. let's credit every mortgage holder with a say $60,000 credit. so now instead of owing $200,000 on a house that is worth $200,000 and you paid $220,000 for, now your mortgage is $140,000 and you once again have equity in you home. plus the bank get $60,000 per mortgage, the taxpayers don't assume the risk and the bank would be free to lend money again.

but hey what do i know

mulderjoe said...

Jeez, that's a brilliant idea, too. If we could combine Bully & Amy's ideas, the economy could truly turn around.

Amy still gets the nod, but Bully for VP.

Gustavo Larry said...

What about the people who already have their home paid off or the people that don't own a home? Someone is going to lose.

If Obama's plan is the 90 day plan listed, it's only going to delay the problem 90 days. People can't get out from a huge mortgage payment in 90 days.

If McCain's solution is to lock these people's mortgage, I think that's a good way to put a band aid on the problem, but I think you should take every one of those people's credit score back to 0. They'll suffer when they go to try to buy something in the next 7 years. Make them work for the next 7 years to prove themselves worthy.

The long term fix is to eliminate that "Affirmative Action Lending" Act that started this whole mess.

Horroru said...

Larry, you crazy maverick! Not suprisingly we agree again.

Check out this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MGT_cSi7Rs

And yes I realize this could be edited to make the Dems look bad and the Repubs look good, but I honestly get the feeling after watching it that not a lot of editing was needed....

Gustavo Larry said...

It all just makes so much sense, doesn't it Joe? Sarah and I watched the SNL Thursday night spoof and we felt like it sure bashed McCain a lot. I didn't really hear anything bad about Obama. Guess I know who runs that ship.

Sarah said...

Yeah, I mean on SNL last night, they weren't even trying to be fair with their jokes and spread them around. And I'm not saying it should have been more Obama jokes, I laughed a quite a number of McCain jokes, and then it just became redundant and blatantly obvious that all they were trying to accomplish was pure McCain bashing. If it had been the other way around I would be saying the same thing. I thought the point of the show was to be funny, something, let’s face it they lost a long time ago and I guess are trying to make up for it now. Too bad it's still not funny.

mulderjoe said...

If ANYONE should be supporting McCain, it should be SNL. They have a goldmine with Tina Fey doing her impression of Palin.

I mean, Dana Carvey's career basically ended when George H.W. Bush's presidency ended. Not saying that'll happen to Fey, as her show "30 Rock" is awesome. But would you rather poke fun at Obama/Biden or McCain/Palin?

No contest.

Still writing in the Bennett/Ouellette team.

Horroru said...

Sarah, Larry--
I'm so glad you brought up the SNL deal -- you're absolutely right, and anyone with half a brain can see right through it.

Could NBC have an adgenda here?
Weeks before an election -- putting a "special" edition of SNL right in the middle of their strongest line up of shows -- bash McCain/Palin the whole show while making Obama look completely normal. It's a free campaign ad for Obama, just a bunch of propaganda thinly disguished as entertainment.

It's very calculated -- write skits where McCain and Palin look like complete freaks, while Obama and Biden look back at them horrified. It's so unbalanced that if a right leaning show did this the left (as usual) would cry about it and point out how unfair it was... If they were trying to parody the election and both parties that would be great, but instead it's a free commercial for the Obama campaign and that's just insulting. (like I need the "cool" people at SNL telling me how to vote)

Who do they think it's going to influence? Some kids in their 20s who don't vote anyway? Stupid people over 30?

Lorne Michaels is the reason SNL hasn't evolved for 30 years...
( they should take a queue from South Park, which love it or hate it always rips apart people on both sides of an issue)

Now to give them some due, they did do ONE skit ripping the Dems two weeks ago. But go to the SNL site landing page, and you'll see that while this skit is buried deeper in the site, the "Featured Videos" on the landing page are all the McCain Palin bashing vids.

Thanks SNL for putting your politics over comedy, nice way to screw up your priorities.

And that's my SNL rant! (and not one word about Sarah Palin dressed as a French Maid, although I was thinking about it...)

Gustavo Larry said...

I kept waiting at the end of the SNL show to hear something like "This is Barak Obama and I approve of this message".

Sarah said...

Joe:

That is SO funny that you mention that. A coworker and I were just discussing that and I made this comment: "It was so nice to watch SNL give Obama a blow job right on National Television, that wasn't awkward at all."

I don't mind comedy when it's smart, again, this is where SNL has fallen short for a large number of years.