A flip-flop of this magnitude confirms what I already feared: McCain
does not know what his values are and he is not at all the maverick he
likes to make out to be; he is just one more posturing and pandering
politician. As Don intimated, politicians will be falling over
themselves trying to outdo each other on bailouts and we taxpayers and
our progeny will get to pay the interest on all the billions that
their vote-pandering plans cost. We who know how mortgages get made
are rolling our eyes and shaking our heads. The cost of making yet
another new mortgage, and the cost of loss--ha ha--to the original
lender and the inequity to all the rest of the borrowers who signed
loans they could handle but will get zero recognition for using common
sense all add up to economic insanity, inequity and stupidity.
I predict that this is just the beginning.
This excerpt from a NYT article titled McCain, in Shift, Seeks U.S.
Help for Homeowners spells out the McCain flip-flop more fully that my
previous post:
Senator John McCain, who drew criticism last month after he warned
against broad government action to solve the deepening mortgage
crisis, pivoted Thursday and called for the government to help
qualified homeowners with subprime mortgages refinance and get
federally guaranteed 30-year mortgages.
“There is nothing more important than keeping alive the American dream
to own your home, and priority number one is to keep well-meaning,
deserving home owners who are facing foreclosure in their homes,” Mr.
McCain said in Brooklyn, where he held a round-table discussion with
small-business owners.
Mr. McCain, an Arizona Republican, said his plan would apply only to
people who have subprime mortgages on their primary residences who
could show that they would be able to meet the terms of a new, 30-year
fixed-rate mortgage. He also called for the Department of Justice to
investigate the lending industry.
Mr. McCain did not mention how much his plan would cost, but his
economic advisers were scheduled to brief reporters later in the day.
In both tone and substance, Mr. McCain’s remarks were something of a
departure from a speech the senator delivered last month in California
in which he warned that “it is not the duty of government to bail out
and reward those who act irresponsibly, whether they are big banks or
small borrowers,” and noted that there had been “rampant speculation”
by both lenders and borrowers who had expected the values of homes to
keep rising.