Washington is just so ... so ... so Washington! The Left is
falling all over itself positioning itself as defender of
homeowners against evildoers seeking to foreclose on houses the
buyers can no longer pay for. Never mind that many our
current economic problems derive from the artificial bubble that
has burst, and only a painful price adjustment downward is
going to allow the economy to return to steady and solid
growth.
Moreover, many people purchased homes they could never
afford, and have no claim to pick the pockets of the rest of
us. Especially the pockets of those of who were
careful in how much house they bought, as well as potential
homebuyers, who held off buying what they couldn't afford.
In this case lower prices reward the thrifty and
responsible. Further, lower prices will turn more people
into homeowners.
The worst poseur today is Rep. Barney Frank chairman of the House
Financial Services Committee. He is seen by the Left as the
bulwark against even the Obama administration-to-be in ensuring a
bail-out of as many irresponsible people as possible.
Explains Harry Meyerson in the Washington Post:
Yet even after their recklessness propelled their nation into
an economic crisis, America's bankers remain the coddled
children of Bush-Paulson economic policy and might just remain
so under the Obama administration. Last Friday, the panel that
Congress appointed to oversee the
Treasury's Troubled Assets Relief Program (TARP), which
administers the $350 billion bailout to banks, reported that
the Treasury has not monitored what the banks have done with
the funds they received and that despite the language in the
bailout legislation "to maximize assistance for homeowners"
none of the bailout has been put to that purpose.
Indeed, if the Treasury had set out to design a system to
demonstrate once and for all that trickle-down economics
doesn't work, it could not have done better than TARP.
Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson has thrown money at the
banks, which resolutely refuse to lend it to businesses and
homeowners, no matter how creditworthy they may be.
That's why a bill that
Barney Frank is promoting in the House, which would direct
banks that choose to take bailout funds to start lending to
creditworthy borrowers and designate no less than $40 billion
for mortgage
relief, is necessary if Congress is to authorize the
Treasury to spend another $350 billion on TARP. Over in the
Senate, the Democrats seem inclined to think that the need for
such legislation is obviated by
President-elect Obama's promise to administer the TARP in
the ways that Frank's bill would mandate.
If Obama's appointees inspired sufficient trust that they would
be willing to take on the banks, such legislation would be
unnecessary. Unfortunately, they don't.
Of course, this is the same Barney Frank who worked so hard to
turn Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac into political slush funds while
assuring the world that they were safe and sound.
Oops! But in Washington people just go from failures to
bigger and better things. Rep. Frank is a prime example,
having a big hand in the "rescue" of the American economy
which he did so much to sabotage.
