Two weeks ago he said the government should stay out of the mortgage crisis, now he’s all over calls for increased government intervention:
John McCain called for an aggressive federal government role aimed at stabilizing the housing market, rejecting a largely hands-off approach he outlined two weeks ago.
The likely Republican presidential nominee’s prescription included a heavy dose of policy more typically associated with Democrats, as he sought to show voters he understands their economic pain. Most significantly, he urged the federal government to guarantee new mortgages for homeowners at risk of foreclosure.
The plan “offers every deserving American family or homeowner the opportunity to trade a burdensome mortgage for a manageable loan,” he told New York-area small-business owners Thursday.
The plan’s price tag is estimated at anywhere between $3 billion and $10 billion.
Sen. McCain also called for a Justice Department task force on criminal wrongdoing among mortgage lenders, a move many senior Justice Department officials have resisted.
McCain basically had it right two weeks ago when he said the the government needed to step aside and let the mortgage mess work itself out. Now he’s fallen in with the Bush Administration and the Democrats and their counterproductive bailout ideas.
Subsidizing people who can’t afford the houses they are living in to begin with isn’t going to solve the problem that created the situation we’re dealing with, it’s only going to delay the inevitable reckoning.
April 11th, 2008 at 2:00 pm
Wow. I guess the Republican party as the party of small government and fiscal responsibility is truly dead.
April 11th, 2008 at 2:25 pm
Democrat congress with the help of Bill Clinton and for sure Hillary pulling his strings passed the bill which stated that the federal government guarantee new mortgages for new homeowners reguardless of there credit history. WHAM Then these mortages were sold to other financial institutions who paid 10 percent down and put the remaining on credit. And went belly up. Selling mortages screwd all this up!!!!!! A mortage company should be required by law to retain all mortages until full payment is recieved. YES the Feds need to make this a law and McCain is more on tract than the other guys and Hillary running for President