PrintMay 13, 2009
How's Obama's foreclosure policy working out?
It has been nearly three months since a newly sworn in President Obama stepped forward with a plan to rescue underwater homeowners from foreclosure. Now, we learn that the President's $275 Billion foreclosure fix has floundered and failed. The professional media slobbered over Obama's homeowner bailout under the pretext that they cared about the little guy/gal losing the family home. Yet as foreclosure numbers climb to a record, breakneck pace the media stubbornly refuses to note this enormous failure of the Obama administration. The foreclosure "surge" has been lost.
CNN is reporting that April saw a record 342,000 homes slip into the foreclosure process. And the worst is yet to come. According to the article, government intervention did slow down the process, for a moment. Some major lenders took a pause last February to see what the foreclosure bailout plan would bring. But the delay is over. According to CNN it will get worse next month as even more homes move into repossession.
President Obama spoke of his plan in February -- "Through this plan, we will help between 7 and 9 million families restructure or refinance their mortgages so they can avoid foreclosure." (NPR ) Instead the foreclosure rate has accelerated. The President pushed through hundreds of billions in spending that has done nothing to ease the foreclosure frenzy.
It is now time for the media to question the judgment of President Obama and his economic policy. His quick fix, band-aid, throw money at the problem, Democrat solutions have not rescued the little guy from escalating foreclosure rates, unemployment rates, or crashing home values. We were assured that the emergency spending bills he pushed through would have a short term stimulus effect, yet we see none. We were told that George Bush wrecked the economy. Common sense must dictate that if Obama knows so much better than Bush, why hasn't he at least stopped the crushing foreclosure rate?
The media should be asking questions of the President. Why was the President under the illusion that his plan would rescue homeowners? Where did he get his intelligence? Was his information cherry-picked from all the available opinions within the government? Weren't there government officials, media and business experts warning that the fix would fail? Is anybody going to be held responsible for this "optional war" on foreclosure that stuck taxpayers for $275 Billion worth of nothing?
And the media should be asking questions to itself. Why did it uncritically report this massive fraud without asking for any proof it would work? Would a $275 Billion failure be ignored if big-business had dropped the ball instead of big government Democrats? Of course these questions are rhetorical. The media doesn't have the spine to stand up to a popular President they agree with.
