Posted on 02/13/2009 9:48:34 AM PST by KeyLargo
Obama offers no housing fix, little hope
February 13, 2009
BY STEVE HUNTLEY
The nearly $800 billion stimulus bill will be signed, sealed and delivered in a day or so. Even those of us with doubts about its priorities, its big spending and its non-stimulus agenda of liberal goals hope it will deliver a much-needed jolt to our staggering economy. We're all in this leaky boat together.
Still, doubts about the bill's effectiveness are compounded by the slowness of the Obama administration, like the Bush White House before it, to address the source of this economic calamity, the housing collapse. Will homeowners who know their house is worth less today than yesterday, and even less tomorrow, loosen their purse strings to restart the powerful engine of consumer spending just because Congress has passed a stimulus package?
The final version of the bill watered down its housing component, a tax credit to boost home buying. So homeowners nervously eyeing their falling net worth don't see Congress offering much in the way of immediate help.
President Obama gave a big buildup to Tuesday's unveiling of a banking-housing rescue plan by Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner. But the announcement from Geithner, the man deemed so indispensible to economic recovery that his embarrassing tax avoidance had to be ignored, landed with a resounding dud. The stock market plummeted nearly 5 percent and members of Congress expressed dismay about what they saw, or rather didn't see -- details about how programs putting taxpayers on the hook for up to $2.5 trillion would work.
To be sure, what to do about millions of bad mortgages clogging the nation's financial arteries and depressing housing prices is a hard, complex challenge. The $700 billion Troubled Assets Relief Program was intended to buy up toxic loans, but finding and pricing the dodgy debts proved so daunting the Bush administration decided instead to inject billions into banks and other financial institutions to prevent a banking collapse.
It's true that Obama has been in office under a month. Still, he was elected and Geithner appointed to tackle hard, complex challenges. The housing crisis didn't crop up yesterday. In a post-election news conference, Obama said a systematic approach to home foreclosures would help stabilize the financial system. We're still waiting to see that approach. The TARP bill was enacted Oct. 1 and Geithner, then head of the New York Federal Reserve Bank, worked from the start with his predecessor, Henry Paulson, on the issue. It's 4½ months later and still no program for bad mortgages.
Granted, tackling a problem too hastily can make it worse. But Obama was having none of that view when he pressed for passage of the stimulus bill. We have to act quickly or things will only get much worse, he said. Why doesn't that apply to housing as well?
The unhurried way Obama approaches housing suggests a tentative nature to his leadership. As I noted in Tuesday's column, Obama talked a good game about bipartisanship but did nothing of substance to gain Republican participation in writing the stimulus bill. He issued an executive order banning lobbyists from working for him, then immediately made a couple of exemptions. He seemed tone-deaf to the tax avoidance of Geithner and Tom Daschle, a onetime nominee for a Cabinet post.
Obama treated the nation to soaring, inspiring campaign oratory. Now, his speeches and pronouncements sound gloomy: Things will get worse before they'll get better. The nation faces a catastrophe if the stimulus isn't enacted. The stimulus bill is not perfect, we don't know that all the parts will work as intended.
There's no "we have nothing to fear but fear itself" poetry in his utterances. The first questioner in his Monday news conference asked Obama if his "dire language" posed the danger of talking down the economy. As important as stimulus and banking-housing measures are, a president should also be able to inspire the nation in troubled times. So far, Obama seems to inspire Americans only when he wants their votes. Comment at suntimes.com.
I hope everyone who for 0 suffers under this bill.
Bound to be a glut at some point.
This is just looting the Treasury to entrench Democrat policies. Treasonous bastards. The chickens will come home to roost and lampposts may be involved.
Coburn list of wasteful, non-stimulative spending in new stimulus
February 9, 2009
Wasteful and Non-Stimulative Spending in Nelson-Collins Substitute
• $2 billion earmark for FutureGen near zero emissions powerplant in Mattoon, IL
• $39 billion slush fund for “state fiscal stabilization” bailout
• $5.5 billion for making federal buildings “green” (including $448 million for DHS HQ)
• $200 million for workplace safety in USDA facilities
• $275 million for flood prevention
• $65 million for watershed rehabilitation
• $200 million for public computer centers at community colleges and libraries
• $650 million for the DTV transition coupon program
• $307 million for constructing NIST office buildings
• $1 billion for administrative costs and construction of NOAA office buildings
• $100 million for constructing U.S. Marshalls office buildings
• $300 million for constructing FBI office buildings
• $800 million for constructing Federal Prison System buildings and facilities
• $10 million to fight Mexican gunrunners
• $1.3 billion for NASA (including $450 million for “science” at NASA)
• $100 million to clean up sites used in early U.S. atomic energy program
• $10 million for urban canals
• $2 billion for manufacturing advanced batteries for hybrid cars
• $1.5 billion for carbon capture projects under sec. 703 of P.L. 110-140 (though section only authorizes $1 billion for five years)
• $300 million for hybrid and electric cars for federal employees
• $198 million to design and furnish the DHS headquarters
• $255 million for “priority procurements” at Coast Guard (polar ice breaker)
• $500 million for State and local fire stations
• $180 million for construction of Bureau of Land Management facilities
• $500 million for wildland fire management
• $110 million for construction for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
• $522 million for construction for the Bureau of Indian Affairs
• $650 million for abandoned mine sites
• $75 million for the Smithsonian Institution
• $1.2 billion for summer jobs for youth
• $412 million for CDC headquarters
• $500 million earmark for NIH facilities in Bethesda, MD
• $160 million for “volunteers” at the Corp. for National and Community Service
• $750 earmark for the National Computer Center in MD
• $224 million for International Boundary and Water Commission – U.S. and Mexico
• $850 million for Amtrak
• $100 million for lead paint hazard reduction
Watch Dr. Coburn’s floor speeches regarding the Senate Stimulus here
Housing has always been a MAJOR part of our economy.
Just for a moment consider all the different products that go into a new home. There are literally hundreds of different industries involved.
The only part of the porkulus bill that made any sense to me was the proposed $15m tax credit for ALL home buyers and
making auto loan interest deductable. These two items would have affected two industries that have been hammered in the last 18 months(IMHO), and led us into this recession.
Porkulus will impact commercial construction but will do very little for single family new home construction.
The Lumber Broker
Considering the impact that Spendulus will have on long-term interest rates (they’re gonna go up up up), the RE industry is going to take it in the shorts.
There are some avenues which most of us came up through ... renting other peoples (usually smaller size) property than the current 3/4 bedroom, 2 bath, coming with all appliances in the kitchen, covered patios, A/C and Cen.heat, 2 car garage in good/desirable location, etc.
Some of us rented for the first years, maybe 7-10, before we bought a first home; and we did not start out with the kind of home our parents had at the time. Some bought package prefabs, especially if one had some land to put it on, some lived in apartments, some lived in Mobile homes, etc. All this is a learning process; and it teaches some sound lessons about money management.
This is not the hot market builders choose to build. They like the more expensive homes. For good reason.
THEY MAKE MORE MONEY.
Not if we let a hundred million or so escape the collapse of Mexico, as refugees.
There is always an easy answer, not necessarily desirable, but a way, none the less.
His agenda is so busy it keeps him looking like a frantic worker stuffing filling into doughnuts and he's falling behind.
He's reaching out now that his self-inflicted stimulus package is oozing out of Washington to stop our missile defense system dead in its tracks.
Of course that assures that we'll be dead in our tracks in the future.
We can 'hope' he'll 'change' but the odds are against that 99.99-0.01. He's truly a dude with mission.
His press conference shows an empty suit speaking in spurts that make absolutely no sense when strung together.
He will, indeed, be the ruination of a nation.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.