I'm not going to waste space on the Stimulus Bill. You can google that yourself and see where the money is going. All I'll say is that the formula has been tried, measured, and found flawed. The only correct formula for the stimulation of a western economy is to allow the citizens to keep more of their own money and decide the best use of it.
Now, I will use space for the housing relief proposed by the Obama administration.
When I heard the specifics of the proposal, my first thought was "You've got to be kidding me." Apparently the Republican minority in congress thought the same thing. From CNN I grabbed this excerpt of questions posed by Republicans to the President:
Question: What will your plan do for the over 90 percent of homeowners who are playing and paying by the rules?
My Answer: Leave them completely flabbergasted and wondering why they've made the right decisions and worked so hard for so long to acheive the American Dream. It's a privilege to own a home, be employed, and live the dream; not a right.
Question: Does your plan compensate banks for bad mortgages they should have never made in the first place?
My Answer: Yes. End of discussion. We are not going to hold anyone accountable. It's obviously Jose's fault that the bank gave him a mortgage he couldn't afford without verification of income or credit references.
Question: Will individuals who misrepresented their income or assets on their original mortgage application be eligible to get the taxpayer funded assistance under your plan?
My Answer: Of course they will. We're going to just ignore that misrepresentation of income (what I would call fraud).
Question: Will you require mortgage servicers to verify income and other eligibility standards before modifying mortgages?
My Answer: And reverse what Bill Clinton set forth in the 1990s? Too good to be true.
Question: 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?
My Answer: We'll do nothing about it. We'll just keep adjusting them. Which, by the way, would mean that people that couldn't afford the home and received an adjustment, still can't afford the home.
My Question: What will differentiate individuals needing this assistance from those of us who are responsible citizens and individuals?
