With President Bush’s letter to Speaker Nancy Pelosi Wednesday and John McCain’s speech in Brooklyn yesterday, now all three presidential candidates and the White House are supporting plans that would expose taxpayers to hundreds of billions of dollars in housing market risk. All three plans would set extremely bad precedents …
The early narrative of the housing market collapse featured all the usual suspects: sleazy mortgage bankers, shadowy lenders and pushy Wall Street brokers – all of them preying on unsuspecting homebuyers. But now we’re starting to get, as radio legend Paul Harvey puts it, “the rest of the story.” Turns …
Polling shows that while 61% Americans oppose bail outs for Wall Street investment companies, 56% support “the federal government taking steps to help prevent people from losing their homes.” Apparently, who is asking for government help and why is crucial to public support for federal government intervention. That is one …
The White House isn’t buying the Senate housing bill. As Benton Ives reports in Congressional Quarterly, President Bush is not too thrilled with the bailout proposal. Why? “The bill will likely do more harm than good by bailing out lenders and speculators and passing on costs to other Americans who …
Building on news that the bipartisan consensus behind the Senate’s “Foreclosure Enhancement Act” is beginning “to crumble,” the White House sent a letter to Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) today outlining what they would accept in housing legislation. The letter includes many strong principles that ought to be congratulated, including: We …
Yesterday House Republican leaders issued a joint statement outlining “Principles for Bipartisan Housing Legislation.” Many of the principles are sound in theory, but could also easily open the door to invasive and costly actual legislation. The Heritage Foundation responds to each of the principles below: Support Homeownership. Homeownership is central …
Considering how quickly the Senate is moving on a housing bailout bill (cloture scheduled for 2:15 Tuesday), it is surprising how universally unpopular some of its provisions are. Apparently Senators believe they have to show Americans they can “do something” on housing, but the details of this bill have few …
