Cramer was on Hardball last night, joining in with his pals over at CNBC whining that Obama is rewarding bad behavior by helping at-risk homeowners keep their homes.
The U.S. should "help everybody", not just people who are defaulting on their mortgage, he complains.
Here's Cramer explaining his solution, so much better and fairer than Obama's:
MATTHEWS: OK, more infrastructure would have helped. Let me ask you about the housing plan he has. What does that do, and will that solve the problem, the housing problem?
CRAMER: No, it will not. It will not. He has to, first of all, get out of the class warfare game. He has to offer a U.S. government solution not just to people who are defaulting on their mortgage but to everybody. The idea that I wanted, and I‘m going to be talking with Sheila Bair, who‘s terrific, from the FDIC, is 4 percent interest rate nationwide. You can refinance or you can get a mortgage at those prices. That will take a lot of the supply off the table.
You must cut principal. You cannot do it with interest. People have been defaulting within six months if you just cut the interest.
There's just a couple of problems with Cramer's solution.
- It doesn't help with the problem mortgages (by his own admission).
- It doesn't help "everybody" (not even those most in need of help).
It only helps homeowners. So instead of the "good" homeowners grousing about the "loser" homeowners, it'd be the renters and other non-owners grousing about their money being used to help out all the homeowners.
The fact is, the tax law is already written to dramatically favor buying over renting, and this would exacerbate that.
Of course, CNBC no doubt thinks of renters as losers as well. This is typical republican BS: Any help for those in need is bad, and their counterproposal is always to give the most to those who need it least.
And if you're wondering what "class warfare" he's referring to above, Tweety never asked.
Update: Fixed typo in headline.