One of the biggest applause moments of Mccain's speech today baffles me

[SoCalDem]

He was growling & grimacing his way through his canned speech, and the crowd applauded like crazy when he mentioned the part about the GOVERNMENT buying up all the "bad mortgages", so that the people could "stay in their homes"..and so that the property values of the neighborhoods would stop suffering..

Think about it...republicans applauding such an audacious thing??

Party of "personal responsibility", and party of people who willingly cut off funding for childrens' health programs, party of people who don't approve of feeding hungry poor people... BUT

they are now willing to "look the other way" and bail out their neighbor's mortgages??

That must be some powerful koolaid..


for instance:

couple A bought their house for $100K in 1980-something..put down 15K of their own money as a down payment... they never tapped the equity..just paid on it religiously year after year..

couple B "bought" the same style house next door in 2002..financed $300K..nothing down..ninja loan...paid interest only for 2 years...did several re-fis, taking out tens of thousands of mirage-equity, which they spent on cars & vacations & "toys".....their present loan obligation is $450K, and of course, they are facing foreclosure...but they have taken out $150K in "profit"..in cash over 5 years, and had a place to live in... and have deducted all that lovely interest from their taxes every year..

Now couple A is somehow OK with the idea to "wipe away" the loan indebtedness, and make a "new" loan for them, and the couple who lived frugally, get only the hope that their property will not fall further in value..

the profligate borrowers should NOT be "made whole"... yet somehow McCain's plan is exactly that... let them keep the money they took out, and re-write a new loan as if they never took the money in the first place..

[rosesaylavee]

1. That's just it - they are Republican in name only

The Republican Party that we have known for the past 50 years is no more.

There is no platform, there is no policy, there is no issue that they can agree upon. If it weren't for that perennial cash cow, Roe v Wade they would have no glue holding them together.

Done. Stick a fork in them. All that remains are these cretins interested only in what's in it for them. There is nothing of the traditional conservative about them.

[dennysp]

2. Well, McCain can "spread the wealth around" as long as he

doesn't say that's what he's doing!!!

[Eric J in MN]

3. Republicans were against federal interference in education, until...

...George W. Bush embraced that in 2000 ("No Child Left Behind") and Republicans have been in favor of federal interference in education ever since.

Republicans applauding the federal government buying mortgages is the 2008 version of the phenomena.

[stillcool]

4. somebody must have raised the applause sign...

[Demobrat]

5. I'm okay with refinancing people out of option ARMs.

And maybe even eating the difference between the loan amount and what the house is worth now if the buyer put down a down payment of ten percent or more. But PURCHASE LOANS ONLY. NOT refis! If somebody refinanced and took cash out they had the use of the money and should pay it back. If somebody was steered into a loan they didn't understand because it was misrepresented, and it happened a a lot, sure let's help them out.

[leftofcool]

6. I have read about the plan and it does have some merit

Only, though, if it is followed to the letter. The only ones that would benefit are those who had good credit when taking out the original loan, were financially stable when taking out the original loan and either lost their jobs, had too many medical bills and are not too far in arrears on the payments. This is a plan I sort of think Obama will come up with eventually.

[metapunditedgy]

7. how many people would that plan help?

Didn't Bush put together a similar plan and nobody used it?