House Republicans Assail Housing Rescue
EmailABC News’ Z. Byron Wolf Reports from Capitol Hill: The bipartisan housing bill currently before the Senate appears to be bipartisan only in the Senate.
As senators prepare to vote on the sweeping bill, which seeks to create an up to $300 billion program to refinance at-risk mortgages into private loans with government backing, over in the House, Republicans are getting ready to play some strong defense against it with the barely related but symbolically powerful special loans that some Democratic senators received from Countrywide.
Several House Republicans had called last week for hearings on the "Friends of Angelo" program, named for former Countrywide CEO Angelo Mozilo, but with the Senate poised to pass its Housing legislation soon, a high profile, anti-housing bill Republican, the minority leader, called again for hearings.
"Before the House moves forward on a massive housing bailout at the expense of every American taxpayer, there are significant questions that must be answered about the ‘Friends of Angelo’ program and the sweetheart loans provided to key Democratic lawmakers," House Minority Leader Rep. John Boehner, R-Ohio, says in a statement.
House Financial Services Committee Chair Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., had rejected the calls for a hearing last week. But those calls were not coming from the Minority Leader. If nothing else, today’s statement from Boehner represents a digging in against the bill by House Republican leaders, even if they lack the power or the votes to ultimately derail it.
"I am also concerned by news reports suggesting that banks wrote the bailout provisions of this bill to allow them to ‘cherry-pick’ the mortgages that are least likely to be repaid and dump the debt on taxpayers," Boehner said, referring to an allegation made in a Wall Street Journal editorial and a story in today’s Washington Post that showed banks lobbied heavily for the bill.
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Barack Obama has the DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE tattooed on his stomach. It’s upside-down, so he can read it while doing sit-ups.
Posted by: NooNoo | June 25, 2008, 3:25 pm 3:25 pm
Obama is PROUD that Jesus was an American.
Posted by: Mr hawkie | June 25, 2008, 3:26 pm 3:26 pm
Just to prove Obama is American as apple pie.
Barack Obama buys AMERICAN STUFF. He owns a FORD, a BASEBALL TEAM, and a COMPUTER HE BUILT HIMSELF FROM AMERICAN PARTS. He travels mostly by FORKLIFT.
Posted by: your dog | June 25, 2008, 3:27 pm 3:27 pm
Barack Obama is a PATRIOTIC AMERICAN. He has one HAND over his HEART at all times. He occasionally switches when one arm gets tired, which is almost never because he is STRONG.
Posted by: matt w. | June 25, 2008, 3:31 pm 3:31 pm
Why do Obama supporters completely ignore the fact that his ideas have absolutely no substance?
Posted by: Just Curious | June 25, 2008, 3:38 pm 3:38 pm
changer artist your not funny your disgusting now do as your mommy says and get off the computer now!!!
Posted by: angie | June 25, 2008, 3:40 pm 3:40 pm
If you believe the media, Barack Obama was born in a manger in a small town in Bethlehem and his real mother was the Virgin Mary.
Posted by: House Works | June 25, 2008, 3:41 pm 3:41 pm
An old rancher said, ‘Well, ya know, Obama is a ‘post turtle’. Not being familiar with the term, the angie asked him what a ‘post turtle’ was.
‘While they were driving down a country road and they came across a fence post with a turtle balanced on top, that’s a ‘post turtle’.’
The old rancher saw a puzzled look on the angies’s face,
so he continued to explain. ‘You know he didn’t get up there by himself,
he doesn’t belong up there, he doesn’t know what to do while he is up there, and you just wonder what kind of a moron put him up there in the first place.
Posted by: ang1e | June 25, 2008, 3:44 pm 3:44 pm
Barack Obama goes to church every morning. He goes to church every afternoon. He goes to church every evening. He is IN CHURCH RIGHT NOW.
Posted by: ang1e | June 25, 2008, 3:45 pm 3:45 pm
So this is where kindergardeners meet while waiting for their bus . . . . .
Posted by: DAVID NH | June 25, 2008, 3:46 pm 3:46 pm
hey changer artist isint it time to go play with your friends now better get off the computer like mom said before you get grounded!!!
Posted by: angie | June 25, 2008, 3:48 pm 3:48 pm
Obama reminded questioners that he had recently “choked down” most of a waffle at a TRUCK stop. This showed, Obama claimed, “that I’m willing to step outside my comfort zone to experience how the other fellow lives.”
Obama also reminded them that in his teen years he forced himself to play basketball “because I understood it was what Black boys do.
Posted by: DAVlD NH | June 25, 2008, 3:52 pm 3:52 pm
wow so much stupidity so little time
Posted by: bhrandon | June 25, 2008, 4:09 pm 4:09 pm
How dare these Democrats use taxpayer money to help private citizens. This money needs to go to large companies that have lost money during the credit crunch. The stocks of all these companies are going down, and they are losing value. We need this money to bail out the corporations.
Posted by: Conservative | June 25, 2008, 4:09 pm 4:09 pm
DAVID NH says “So this is where kindergardeners meet while waiting for their bus . . . . .”
Why David, are you here so often?
Posted by: Just Curious | June 25, 2008, 4:28 pm 4:28 pm
So many but not all home owners and former home owners did not bother to read the small print on the papers they signed. They had no idea the actual costs would be two, three or five years from the date the mortgage was signed. I do feel for those who have financial problems due to losing a job or medical costs. However, I do not think the taxpayers should bail out people who are irresponsible or just plain stupid–not knowing what they signed.
If I thought big brother was obligated to bail out stupidity, I go buy that new Lexus and the big house on the lake. LOL
Posted by: Mary | June 25, 2008, 6:52 pm 6:52 pm
This bill needs to be vetoed. Socializing risk and privatizing profit is bad policy and wrong. If if I agreed with it philosophically, the bill isn’t going to do what it’s stated intention is.
The promoters of this bill promote it saying we need to help out these poor hapless Americans who acted irresponsibly and bought more house than they can afford.
The fact of the bill is all the power of the decision to refinance is with the lender. The lenders decide whether they want to take a 15% haircut on the loan balance in exchange for a FHA guarantee.
So which loans do you think the lenders will agree to dump on the FHA? The worst loans. The lender’s evaluation and decision on which loans to dump on the FHA will be based on profit + loss analysis NOT compassion and need.
No bailout for reckless lenders and irresponsible borrowers. There plenty of people who will buy homes, when they’re priced right.
Posted by: NoBailOut | June 25, 2008, 9:19 pm 9:19 pm