Obama’s foreclosure plan questioned by the loyal opposition.

I must say that the GOP has been a massive disappointment for the past 8 or so years, but they are really impressive recently and much of the thanks can be given to Obama whose magical powers include spinal reconstruction.

Specifically Eric Cantor the Republican whip, credited with rallying the House GOP against the Stimulus bill, has with John Boehner posed several questions for Obama. I personally see this bill flying through as too many Republicans are obsessed with stopping the housing meltdown at whatever cost, but I am happy to see them get vocal. Aim is to spend 75 billion to shore up 9 million mortgages in an effort to thwart our country from the continuing housing meltdown.

Courtesy of CNN, here are the questions.

• What will your plan do for the over 90 percent of homeowners who are playing and paying by the rules?

• Does your plan compensate banks for bad mortgages they should have never made in the first place?

• Will individuals who misrepresented their income or assets on their original mortgage application be eligible to get the taxpayer funded assistance under your plan?

• Will you require mortgage servicers to verify income and other eligibility standards before modifying mortgages? Watch more on the home foreclosure crisis »

• What will you do to prevent the same mortgages that receive assistance and are modified from going into default three, six or eight months later?

• How do you intend to move forward in the drafting of the legislation and who will author it?

Those are all excellent questions and my particular favorite and something that I have been whining about – what about the rest of us? If stupid people unable to read mortgage rules and cannot understand what an Adjustable mortgage does (it adjusts), then why OH WHY should they be bailed out? As my previous post on the matter pointed out, a majority of the refinanced loans fail and the GOP is curious as to why this time it will be different. Lastly, after the latest partisan boondoggle they are asking if any Republicans will be invited to participate and I am sure they will.

Obama has made the following process and I will be watching very closely to see how quickly he will go back on his words.

“It will not rescue the unscrupulous or irresponsible by throwing good taxpayer money after bad loans. It will not help speculators who took risky bets on a rising market and bought homes not to live in but to sell,” Obama said Wednesday. “It will not reward folks who bought homes they knew from the beginning they would never be able to afford.”

Really? He wants to save 9 million mortgages, but it does not include speculators, irresponsible or unscrupulous individuals? Where is he getting 9 million from then, because that is higher than any estimate I have ever seen.

Judd Gregg tapped, replaced by moderate Bonnie Newman. New Hampshire blue in the face?

In the midst of all the tax dodging and CIA prison shutdowns the Obama administration in the spirit of bi-partisanship tapped NH Senator Judd Gregg to fill the spot that Bill Richardson had to abandon. Judd Gregg worked some special deal where the NH Democrat Governor would be obligated to select a Republican to fill Gregg’s vacancy.

Not much is known about Bonnie Newman, but so far it appears that she is a moderate. If it were not for the unbearable squealing from the DailyKos I would think that our senate situation has worsened, but I have a feeling that anyone not sporting a hammer and sickle would feel the wrath from the folks over at the daily kos.

While it is not a surprise that the GOP has in large part abandoned core conservative ideals, the debate over whether this country of ours is still a center-right nation continues. Even if the difference between Gregg and Newman are marginal, one is a rank and file the other a moderate, the bigger question is what happens next.

As of now it appears that my neighbor to the north, the live free or die state, is undergoing a transformation – looks like the great commonwealth is exerting some much unwelcome pressure. As the liberals have proudly pointed out New Hampshire has thrown out high ranking Republicans and have finally began their inspiring journey to liberalism and beyond. They have now voted Democrate in the past two presidential elections and unseated John Sununu with tax raising machine Jeanne Shaheen.

What is worst now, Newman’s appointment is under the premise that she will not be running in 2010, not that we necessarily want her to. Or do we? With Gregg gone it would appear that a Democrat senator is almost a guaranteed shoe-in thus further destabilizing the balance of power in the Senate. Is she a guarantee? The liberals tend to think so and that puts a damper on my mood and probably yours too.

Mitch McConnell’s amendment to porkulus is HORRIBLE.

Just when you thought that the GOP is back to it’s old self after unanimously rejecting the 819 billion porkulus package, in comes minority leader Mitch McConnell. His latest proposal to amend the stimulass package is astonishing. He proposes that the government offers millions of fixed rate mortgages at 4 to 4.5 percent! I am no economist, but upon reading this I threw up a little in my mouth. Just kidding…threw up a lot.

As a free market loving, small government wanting fiscally conservative soul I am stunned that this could come out of the GOP. To think that this is what would make McConnell approve this porkulus package is equally saddening. Some of the possible consequences that could arise.

• Free market violations: By infusing the market with fabricated rates that do not correspond to the actual bond market is will disrupt an already weakened mortgage market. This is similar to price fixing and something that was done during the Great Depression.
• House values: Values will drop even further, despite what Mitch thinks. This might temporarily slow down foreclosures, but it will have the awful long term effect of entrenching owners in their homes. Imagine for a second that you are holding a 4.0% 30-year fixed on your home. You are thinking of moving and learn that rates are now at about 10%. Will you move? NO. This could happen in 3-5 years easily as inflation rears it’s ugly head.
• Rent control: People will refuse to sell their homes if they are enjoying these kind of rates. In situations where people are ready to move out (ie retirees) to a smaller condo, they will simply rent the home out. With such a small rate in a matter of years renting the home will become extremely lucrative. Nice homes in affluent areas will get run down as houses turn into rental properties.
• New construction: New homes sales are already slumping in record ways, because people will be tempted to stay in their existing homes to maintain their attractive rates, sales of new homes will not pick up.

This is just an awful plan, through and through. Minority leader should be ashamed of proposing something as short sighted as this.

If the GOP want to amend this disgusting piece of crap called a stimulass package, they need to propose two things and two things only.

1. Lower corporate rates to 15-20%. They want to create jobs? This will create jobs.
2. Lower capital gains tax to 5-10%. People concerned about their 401k? Watch the market fly into the stratosphere.

And finally, STOP SPENDING on USELESS projects that provide no growth!

Republicans have another golden opportunity with Daschle.

UPDATE: Tom Daschle bowed out, a lot of pressure has been generated and he has saved himself from the confirmation hearings. 2/3/2009

The GOP has been very hot or cold recently and it seems they are being handed opportunities to finally asset themselves as being different from the big government nanny-state liberals that are currently running the show.

- They dropped the ball with Geithner who should have been rejected.
- They unified and stood up against the 819 billion all-you-can-eat pork buffet. (Great whip job Eric Cantor!)
- Even though this is the RNC, but Michael Steele was a demonstration of something new and fresh.

Now, they need to flat out reject Daschle the tax cheat. This particular incident is even more egregious than Geithner and a formal apology is not going to cut it, nor should it. GOP needs to show America that they are not only the party of small government, fiscal responsibility, but also of ethics! Please demonstrate to the people that those elected to higher office are public servants and compromising the public trust should be the number one offense. Instead politicians use their immense clout to get away with crimes that normal citizens would be paying hefty prices for. Imagine for a second, if you somehow forgot to pay 146,000 to the IRS!? Your ass would be grass and the IRS would be smoking it. They will lien on your house so hard the mice will scatter.

There needs to be continued pressure from those that still have an ounce of faith that we can restore the correct path in this nation and this pressure should be put forth on all Senators involved in admitting tax cheats and criminals. A previous post of mine highlighted the 10 or so Republicans that allowed Geithner to waltz in as Secretary of Treasury and these very same people better be getting some serious hate mail. These are the same folks that should be pressured to filibuster this stimulass package.

But, it is all not all doom and gloom. One major advantage of having a liberal president is the welcomed side effect is filling the coffers with outstanding tax payments He should appoint more people, we might get out of this financial crisis sooner than we think.

GOP show backbone

American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 passed in the House as it was likely going to. The numbers were slightly revised as it is now the 819 Billion, not 825 Billion stimulus package. 6 billion does not matter when we are dealing such staggering numbers. It’s like asking what is infinity + 1? A: Still infinity.

Anyway, it was pleasant to see that NO Republican, zero, none supported this pork-riddled garbage. Some Democrats also opposed this, about 11 of those. This is important for several reasons.

First of all, GOP demonstrated that they could at least unite behind a fiscally conservative cause.
Second of all, this is resistance to boy wonder popularity contest winner President 0bama.
Third of all, Nancy Pelosi had an orgasm as she read the results of the vote – this is not important per se, but since I was watching it on TV and had to witness this perversion I thought I would share it with the rest of you. It’s not fair that I was the only one feeling woozy and nauseous.