This is probably the best response I’ve yet heard to that CNBC blowhard’s rant last week blaming homeowners for the mortgage meltdown.
Author: hankkalet
Hank Kalet is a poet and freelance journalist. He is the economic needs reporter for NJ Spotlight, teaches journalism at Rutgers University and writing at Middlesex County College and Brookdale Community College. He writes a semi-monthly column for the Progressive Populist. He is a lifelong fan of the New York Mets and New York Knicks, drinks too much coffee and attends as many Bruce Springsteen concerts as his meager finances will allow. He lives in South Brunswick with his wife Annie.
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Hank Kalet 
Sorry, but I don\’t think this \”sob story\” negates the criticism of the mortgage bailout plan. As a general principle, the strategy of bailing out mortgage holders from the taxes of EVERYONE is flawed. Government is trying to make \”winners\” pay for \”losers\”. Sorry, but they can\’t do that. \”Winners\” will quickly learn to hide their \”winnings\” from confiscation. And, the politically connected will \”carve\” out personal exemptions for themselves and their connections.Tactically, the plan is a mishmash of fuzzy thinking. It doesn\’t distinguish between significantly different groups of people. It doesn\’t take into account multiple-home owners. It doesn\’t take into account the underwater versus the unable to pay defaulters. It doesn\’t take into account the resources of the mortgagee.(The Press Secretary being insolent isn\’t going to help the discussion. Did O promise transparency? Weren\’t we supposed to have legislation on the inet to read before it was passed. The Press Secretary made it obvious that NO ONE reads anything before they pass it.)It\’s just another example of gooferment rushing to solve a problem it created without a clue if it will heal or hurt. We couldn\’t read TARP, the so called stimulus bill, or anything else. Hurry, hurry. THe sky is falling.No sarry. We are selling the future at a discount. AND, this all assumes we can borrow enough form the Chinese to do it.Nope, ain\’t gonna work.
Actually, reinkefj, the plan does distinguish significantly between groups of people (those who are \”underwater\” vs. those who default, the resources of the mortgage, etc.); just because you couldn\’t (or maybe just didn\’t?) read TARP, the stimulus bill or anything else, doesn\’t mean no one else can.Also, perhaps you might care to explain how the \”gooferment\” created the problem (and please don\’t give me that old saw about the Community Reinvestment Act, it\’s bunk and we all know it). The subprime crisis and subsequent mess was caused by middle-class people trying to climb the property ladder with flips, to cash in on rentals, or to live better than their friends/families/neighbors. (Look at Central Jersey for a nice illustration.) The banks enabled them to do it under the shield of \’80s/\’90s deregulation.And unless you can show me a post you made four+ years ago about the cost of the war in Iraq and the Bush tax cuts, I would thank you to spare us all the whining about \”selling the future\”; it\’s already been sold.
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>the plan does Does not! (Now this is going to go far.) Doesn't matter cause it changes every minute. Despite the claims of openness. >couldn't (or maybe just didn't?) I read a lot of the trash coming out of washington thanks to the Federal Register. >doesn't mean no one else can. Most senators, like Lautenberg, admited that they had NOT read what they are voting on. >explain how the \”gooferment\” CRA set the stage for the politicians (Frank and Dodd) to beat up on the banks. Fannie and Freddie, as well as GINNIE MAE, and FDIC, and the FED, all were out of control. Don't forget the FED had a hand in this. And to a slightly lesser extent the SEC, FDIC, and FTC share some blame because they had regulatory power. >shield of '80s/'90s deregulation. \”Deregulation\” is really a misnomer. The regs and the regulators were still there. Just asleep at the switch or not regulating where it profited the co-conspirators. >And unless you can show me a post As a little L libertarian, I proudly point you to my blog ReinkeFacesLife http://www.reinkefaceslife.com/ where I've blogged extensively on these topics. I WAS less concerned about the cost of the war than I was about the morality of a war, the poor rationale for it, and the lack of a declaration. As a supported of Ron Paul, the only true anti-war candidate, I've been excoriating Bush about: the creation of the TSA, Medicare drug benefit, the deficits, GITMO, … and on and on. >spare us all the whining about >\”selling the future\”; >it's already been sold. So what you're saying is that \”we are in a hole, but we can't stop digging\”. I think you can realize that's bad advice. I NEVER oppose any TAX CUT anytime. I want spending cuts with them. Otherwise, it's just fraud. I still contend that we are being hustled.
The goofertarian solution is to have the government do absolutely nothing, just stand by as millions more lose their jobs, their savings, their pensions (if they even had a pension), to lose their homes and their health care. Goofertarians don\’t want to pay any taxes because taxes is theft? Just forget about paved roads, safe bridges, a police force, a judiciary system, public schools, public libraries, safe drinking water and all that other \”fluff\” that we associate with civilization. Hello to anarchy.People who lose their jobs through no fault of their own lose their health care and can wind up losing their homes. People who become gravely ill, lose their jobs, then go into bankruptcy, then lose their homes, everything.Goofertarians hate Medicaid because it is tax theft. OK, abolish Medicaid and just throw all those impoverished elderly, who are currently in nursing homes, into the gutter.Goofertarianism is a soulless cult. It does not offer solutions only ideology and rhetoric.
>The goofertarian solution is to have the government do absolutely nothingNO, us little L libertarians think GOVERNMENT has a few very specific and very important functions. Maybe you'll recognize the words: \”We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with inherent and inalienable rights; that among these, are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; that to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed; that whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness.\” –Declaration of Independence as originally written by Thomas Jefferson, 1776. So, government has the role of keeping the peace. Protecting rights from foreign and domestic infingement. Preventing people (all people within its jurisdiction) from force or fraud. >stand by as millions more lose their jobs, their savings, their pensions >(if they even had a pension), to lose their homes and their health care. IF there was force or fraud involved, then there's a role. If not, then exactly right. DO nothing.>Goofertarians don't want to pay any taxes because taxes is theft?Taxes are theft. (\”is\” is the wrong tense as well. There's not just ONE tax!) I didn't agree to them. What else would you call a group of self-appointed people threaten me with guns unless I pay them \”protection\” money?>Just forget about paved roads, safe bridges, a police force, a judiciary system, >public schools, public libraries, safe drinking water and all that other \”fluff\”> that we associate with civilization. Hello to anarchy.Why do you think that we couldn't have all those things without the gooferment? Does Disney World not have roads? Didn't we have Catholic schools for poor French children in the 1500's? What about a lot of \”Judge Judy's\”? Didn't libraries START as private entities? Schools weren't always \”public\”. You say \”Anarchy\” when you really mean \”Chaos\”. Anarchy is a form of order. Were the 13 colonies after the Revolution in \”anarchy\”?>People who lose their jobs … …We've already established that \”health care\” tied to employment is a direct result of the WW2 wage and price controls of FDR. The current gooferment refuses to even allow the minimalist steps to unwind the problem by allow people to deduct their own personal medical insurance premiums. Argh! Let's start with that small step. But the gooferment doesn't want any soultion that might prevent it from taking control of \”health care\”! >through no fault of their own lose their health care and can wind up losing their homes.Let's examine why we as a society can't have \”catastrophic health insurance\”? The gooferment! Insurance companies are not permitted to offer a \”health insurance\” policy that pays a huge percentage of expenses after a huge deductable. It required an Act of Congress to get the \”Health Savings Accounts\” permitted.>Goofertarians hate Medicaid because it is tax theft.No, little L libertarians hate Medicaid because it's welfare. And it is a trap. It traps us into worshipping the all powerful gooferment.(I think you meant Medicare!) We hate Medicare because it's socialized medicine. And, it's not the proper role of government.> abolish … and just throw all those impoverished elderlyNo, we little L libertarian don't hurt people. We obviously need a trasition plan. Clearly, we can't fix a problem that has been created over multiple decades in 10 minutes or less. We do have to recognize that we are in a \”hole\” and have to \”stop digging\”. Personally, I'd suggest that we focus on the 40 year olds and those not born yet. We have to come up with a conversion plan that \”unwinds\” the problem by the time that those not born yet are free and clear. I'm reminded how Chile transitioned from a government social security system to a privitized system. They did it over a few decades with \”recognition bonds\” and privitiztion. We could do something similar. Just turn the giant supership in a new direction. Gently. With a minimum of disruption and fear to people who relied on the promises.>Goofertarianism is a soulless cult. It does not offer solutions only ideology and rhetoric.We have very concrete simple suggestions. You can't continue on the path you are on. You can see the brick wall of changing demographics. (1) Set a direction towards freedom by NOT creating more \”entitlements\”. Put future generation on notice.(2) Use tax policy to ecourage self-reliance.(3) Lower taxes. Lower spending. (4) Push decision making, law making down to the local level.We want peace and liberty for all.
Medicare pays for most of the health expenses for those 65 and over. It covers 80% of the medical expenses (doctors, hospitals, medical treatments, not nursing home care) but it\’s better than pre-Medicare times when poor and working class elderly had no medical coverage. Medicare does NOT pay for nursing home care except for about a month of rehabilitation only. A nursing home, which can cost on average $7,000 a month, is an out of pocket expense until all your savings and assets are used up, then Medicaid kicks in and pays for the nursing home expenses (not the medical expenses which are covered by Medicare). The average elderly citizen that is in a nursing home for more than 3 or 4 years usually uses up all his/her savings and assets and becomes impoverished, destitute. It is at that point that Medicaid begins to pay for the nursing home expenses.For the record, reinke is not a goof. He\’s a smart knowledgeable guy who sincerely believes in a very flawed ideology. I hope he sees the light one day. There are maybe 2 or 3 good things about libertarianism, the other 90% to 98% is oy vay no way Jose.
Without intending to reignite an old \”flame war\”, here\’s a AP \”objective\” statement about the mortgage bailout plan. There won\’t be a lot of reivew. Bail everyone out in a certain genre of debtors. Real fair. And, yes, I DON\”T WANT TO PAY FOR IT!http://apnews.myway.com/article/20090225/D96IFSC80.html*** begin quote *** OBAMA: \”We have launched a housing plan that will help responsible families facing the threat of foreclosure lower their monthly payments and refinance their mortgages. It\’s a plan that won\’t help speculators or that neighbor down the street who bought a house he could never hope to afford, but it will help millions of Americans who are struggling with declining home values.\”THE FACTS: If the administration has come up with a way to ensure money only goes to those who got in honest trouble, it hasn\’t said so.Defending the program Tuesday at a Senate hearing, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said it\’s important to save those who made bad calls, for the greater good. He likened it to calling the fire department to put out a blaze caused by someone smoking in bed.\”I think the smart way to deal with a situation like that is to put out the fire, save him from his own consequences of his own action but then, going forward, enact penalties and set tougher rules about smoking in bed.\”Similarly, the head of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. suggested this month it\’s not likely aid will be denied to all homeowners who overstated their income or assets to get a mortgage they couldn\’t afford.\”I think it\’s just simply impractical to try to do a forensic analysis of each and every one of these delinquent loans,\” Sheila Bair told National Public Radio.*** end quote ***