George W Bush May 17,2002 on TV address:” Freddy Mac will launch 25 different initiatives to eliminate home-ownership barriers. Under one of these, consumers with bad credit will get mortgage with an interest rate that automatically goes down after a period of consistent payments… I’m serious about this. This is a very important initiative for all Americans, a chance for us to empower people ….” at
Voices of Freedom: Ron Paul, Peter Schiff, and Jim Rogers school Obama, Bush, Bernanke, and Paulson
And isn't that interesting, they were all ARM's that went up.
I'd like to see if that statement can be used to twist the arms of lenders to reduce interest rates.
Bush to Help Minorities Buy Homes:
Help with down payments highlights proposed initiatives
Dateline: 06/18/02 Calling a home the "foundation for families and a source of stability for communities," President Bush has proposed three new initiatives designed to enhance existing federal home buyer assistance programs by helping African- and Hispanic-Americans buy homes.
According to the White House, fewer than half of all African and Hispanic Americans currently own their homes, compared to nearly three-fourths of white Americans. "We must begin to close this homeownership gap by dismantling the barriers that prevent minorities from owning a piece of the American dream," said the President in a nationwide radio address.
To close the homeownership gap, President Bush proposed legislation funding the following new initiatives:...
This mess we are in has taken bipartisan effort in Washington.
Making it possible for folks with less than stellar credit to be able to get a mortgage, with an interest rate that rewards positive behavior, is vastly different from allowing people to get mortgages that were WAY too large for them to ever support, good credit or not. President Bush did NOT support the latter. In fact, he spoke out, in 2003, against Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac extending insurance to financial institutions which were doing just that. He introduced legislation to disallow that practice, and it was defeated in Committee, with the Democrats voting as a bloc.