Re-posting from October, 2008
I understand the anger and frustration that many here are displaying regarding the poor choices that individuals made in buying their homes. Their choices were enabled by deregulation and shady mortgage brokers and also by the get rich quick mentality of the current Housing market that helped artificially inflate home prices.
And yet I wonder one thing about those who would put the individual American who is going to lose their home or who already has lost their home below the big companies who profited from their follies. Are you a Democrat or a Republican? Because either we have an "ownership" society or an "on your own" society.
More behind the cut...
Many of the arguments that I hear from Republicans to tear down the many social programs that Democrats hold dear to their bleeding hearts has much to do with the abuse of the system and the perceived inherent flawed nature of big Government.
Fraud and abuse is rampant in any program (private and public) and it's one of the reasons why Democrats feel so strongly about regulation and oversight. Human nature lends itself to the constant need for more and our society has played into this very real biological pull. The road to hell is paved with good intentions, as they say, and we may mean well but it's very easy for people to make poor choices and find themselves over their heads.
People bought beyond their means to get their kids in a better school district or because they sincerely thought they would be fine because of the reassurances of their mortgage broker and real estate agent. There is an endless list of reasons why people grabbed their opportunity at home ownership.
And yes, you are quite commendable for not doing the same. I get that there are many who refrained from jumping into this mess and buying beyond their means. I get that you were better than the rest and that you made smarter choices. I get that.
But the question I ask you is this? Do we help people or not? Do we stand by our Democratic Values and give people the benifit of the doubt and attempt to help them out of their own mess or do we walk away and wipe our hands clean of the entire mess?
This is not a black and white situation where many of those facing foreclosure did not gamble with their financial futures, they merely fell victim to the failed policies of George W Bush.
Southern California is being hit hard by the bursting of the housing bubble and many are losing their jobs. They are having a hard time making ends meet and their job loss has nothing to do with a bad decision on their mortgage! Do we help them? Or do we stand by and watch people lose their homes?
What about those Americans who have become ill and are on the brink of losing their homes due to their medical bills? Do we stand by and let them fall into the abyss or do we help them stay in their homes?
What about the obscene number of Seniors who are declaring bankruptcy because their fixed incomes cannot keep up with the higher costs they face everyday? So, they didn't plan well enough? They worked their entire lives and deserve to live on the streets or in their kid's garages? Oh, they should have known they would have outlived their parents by a decade because of the advances in medical technology? Or do we help these seniors stay in their homes and help them keep some semblence of dignity as they struggle to meet the ends of their lives with grace and courage?
Do we want to be just as bad as Republicans and sit around and point fingers or do we want to help our fellow Americans stay in their homes, regardless of why they find themselves in a fix? Do we want to judge and hem and haw or do we want to act on behalf of the little guy?
It's a simple question.
I know it's moot, I know this bailout plan is pretty much written in stone now and that consumers are most likely to feel very little relief from the 700 billion plus but what happend to the bottom up? What happened to lifting people up rather than hoping that trickle down might hit them on the top of their heads in the form of low paying jobs and higher gas prices? What happened?
I am already bracing myself for the endless snide comments about how fiscally responsible you are and how you didn't fall for the trap, yipee for you. But you are going to pay for this regardless of how you behaved and your children are going to inherit this mess regardless of how responsible you were.
SO who do you want to benefit the most? The big corporations that continue to avoid paying their fair share of taxes because of the gaping loopholes that many Americans can't take advantage of? What about those corporations who ship American jobs overseas and continue to dismantle our very ability to compete in the global economy?
So what are we? Are we Democrats or not? Do we give people a second chance regardless of how they got in their mess or do we just tell them they are on their own. I hope it's the former and not the latter.
I'm closing with excerpts of the floor remarks Obama that made in the Senate before the vote. Why, because he's the head of our party now, like it or not and he does make sense to me.
But while there’s plenty of blame to go around -- and many in Washington and Wall Street who deserve it -- all of us -- all of us have a responsibility to solve this crisis, because it affects the financial well-being of every single American.
There will be time to punish those who set this fire, but now is not the time to argue about how it got set, or did the neighbor sleep in his bed, or leave the stove on. Right now we want to put out that fire, and now’s the time for us to come together and do that.
...
What it means is that businesses won’t be able to get the loans they need to open a new factory or make payroll for their workers. And if they can’t make payroll on Friday, then workers are laid off on Monday. And if workers are laid off on Monday, then they can’t pay their bills or pay back their loans to somebody else. And it will go on and on and on, rippling through the entire economy. And potentially we could see thousands of businesses close, millions of jobs could be lost, and a long and painful recession could follow.
In other words, this is not just a Wall Street crisis; it’s an American crisis. And it’s the American economy that needs this rescue plan.
...
Number one, I said we needed an independent board to provide oversight and accountability for how and where this money is spent at every step of the way.
Number two, I said that we cannot help banks on Wall Street without helping the millions of innocent homeowners who are struggling to stay in their homes. They deserve a plan, too.
Number three, I said that I would not allow this plan to become a welfare program for Wall Street executives, whose greed and irresponsibility got us into this mess.
...
So to Democrats and Republicans who’ve opposed this plan, I say: Step up to the plate. Let’s do what’s right for the country at this time, because the time to act is now.
I know many Americans are wondering what happens next. And passing this bill can’t be the end of our work to strengthen our economy; it must be the beginning.
Because one thing I think all of us who may end up supporting this bill understand is that, even if we get this in place, we could still have enormous problems and probably will have big problems in the economy over the next several months and potentially longer, because the fact is, is that we have seen some mismanagement of the fundamentals of the economy for a very long time, and we are not going to dig ourselves out of that hole immediately.
So this is not the end. This is the beginning.
Source
h/t to eugene for this comment...
The essence of liberalism
Is providing people a second chance.
It is at the core of right-wing ideology to say that someone who is suffering does not deserve assistance because they brought it upon themselves.
Liberalism isn't about validating the error, but about recognizing that if people are to learn from their mistakes and put themselves right, they need help.
Expand that to a social scale and you get precisely what Ellinorianne is talking about.
I want the housing market to drop. Every time I hear that housing prices have fallen I do a happy dance, because without that there's no way I or anyone else my age (I'm 29) can ever hope to afford buying a house in California.
But the dropping values also hurt people. So we need a way to get them out of it. Even if it's their own fault, who the hell cares? Our job is to help.
A reasonable solution would be to have the government buy mortgages and renegotiate principal and payments based on current market values, or even based on a projected market value a year or two from now. Homeowners don't get drowned by payments they can't afford, but if they resell their home at a higher value, the government would get the difference - homeowners would not profit from this at all, and they would not be able to use their home as an investment.
Of course we also need to deal with the deeper problems - we need more affordable housing, more and decent jobs, with better wages, and guaranteed, affordable, government-provided health care. That's liberal too, because there again we're saying we will guarantee not just a roof, a job, a wage, a doctor visit - but we also guarantee a second chance.
And that is crucial if we really are to live in anything other than a right-wing society.