Thompson votes against bailout | Napa Valley Register

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Thompson votes against bailout

Tuesday, September 30, 2008

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By JILLIAN JONES
Register Staff Writer

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Rep. Mike Thompson, D-St. Helena, joined the bipartisan chorus of opponents to a $700 billion bailout plan Monday, voting against proposed legislation intended to rescue the nation’s financial system.

Resistance to the measure came from both sides of the aisle, with two-thirds of House Republicans and 40 percent of Democrats opposing the bill. The final vote was 228-205.

Fifteen of California’s 34 Democrats in Congress voted against the bill, including Thompson; 9 of 19 Republicans opposed the bill.

Thompson is a member of the Blue Dog Coalition, a group of fiscally conservative Democrats in Congress whose top priority, according to its Web site, is to “refocus Congress on truly balancing the budget and ridding taxpayers of the burden the national debt places on them.”

The bailout plan would have sought to shore up ailing U.S. financial markets by buying out billions in bad investments.

Thompson acknowledged the severity of the current financial crisis, but said he nonetheless voted against the bill because of its inadequate market reforms and weak taxpayer protections.

“We find ourselves in serious times, and we need equally serious solutions to steer our economy back onto solid ground,” Thompson said in an e-mail. “There’s no question we must address the weaknesses in our financial regulatory system to make sure that there are 21st-century regulations for 21st-century markets.”

The legislation would have allowed the government to buy bad mortgages and other shaky assets from banks and financial institutions. Relieving the companies of those debts would free up the lending market, according to supporters, restoring stability to the stumbling economy.

Thompson said he voted against the proposal “because it did not contain the market reforms necessary to address the underlying cause of this problem, nor did it have strong enough taxpayer protections.”

“While congressional leadership plans the next step for a financial rescue legislation, I’m working for better regulation of short selling, greater transparency and regulation of credit default swaps and better recoupment provisions to ensure taxpayers get their money back,” Thompson said.

A short sale occurs when a broker bets against the rise of a stock. A credit default swap acts as insurance in the event of a default, and usually applies to municipal bonds, corporate debt and mortgage securities. Unlike banks and mortgage companies, the credit swap market is not regulated by the government.

55 comment(s)

kevin wrote on Sep 30, 2008 4:56 AM:

" Good for you, Mike. First time you ever voted against your mentor, Nancy Pelosi! How did it feel?

But, try to stay focused on the problem. What does selling short have to do with the Democrat financial meltdown of Fanny Mae and Freddie Mac?

Fix the PROBLEM, Mike! Reign in the government backed Freddie and Franny. STOP them from buying up worthless mortgages and bundling them into securities for resale (in order to increase their asset level and produce huge BONUSES for managment.)

REFORM the Community Reinvestment Act and QUIT forcing banks to make loans to people who can't pay them back.

INVESTIGATE why Dodd and Barney Frank refused to do anything about Franny or Freddie's irresponsible actions when the Republicans were trying to implement changes... "

Bauhausfan wrote on Sep 30, 2008 6:03 AM:

" I guess all the right wing conservatives, who echo each other and the talking points they repeat endlessly, were wrong about who would vote against this bill. Apparently he would never oppose Nancy Pelosi, but he voted against the bill anyway. "

jwk wrote on Sep 30, 2008 7:14 AM:

" Way to go Mike. Good vote. Now if you would just admit who the main culprits of this Financial Meltdown are and What party they are from ie; (Jimma Carter 1977) & (Bill Blythe Clintoon 1999)along with his fellow Dem's Franklin Raines, Chris Dodd, Scuzzy Barney Frank, Jamie Gorelick & Barrack Hussein Obama. Then maybe we can have some faith in you... "

Dwayne wrote on Sep 30, 2008 8:08 AM:

" Is this an election year for Mike, did he receive a load of phone calls and e-mails, or perhaps Mike finally saw the light...???

Way to go Mike... I did think you had "PELOSI" tattooed on your forehead... I guess I was wrong... "

vocal-de-local wrote on Sep 30, 2008 9:43 AM:

" Thank you Mike, for having backbone. Keep in mind that stock and real estate investments are a form of gambling by gamblers, even ordinary ones who don't know what they're doing. I lost some money in the tech stock collapse and I accept that I gambled and lost. No one bailed me out and I survived, a little bruised but wiser. I'm just not sure we should bail anyone out of this mess. I really hope that it's not just another method of protecting and subsidizing the wealthy with our tax dollars. I feel sorry for those who were exploited with the mortgage deals but people have got to learn to look out for their own interests and quit leaning on government institutions to fix everything. If we babysit everyone through life, we will end out with an ever increasing number of people to with dependency issues. Let's not go there. "

myadtviola wrote on Sep 30, 2008 9:47 AM:

" I was VERY pleased to see Thompson voted against the bail out. $700 billion is nothing to rush into!!!!!!!!!
Can continue to vote in a clear conscience for my Representative. "

musikluvr wrote on Sep 30, 2008 9:50 AM:

" What, 10 years in congress and he finally votes correctly once? Was it one of those absentee votes? Did someone with a conscience vote for him? Still no reason to re elect him. We can't allow another 10 years of failure. "

dellasumbrella wrote on Sep 30, 2008 9:59 AM:

" My goodness! The Repub's get their way, and they STILL feel compelled to blame, blame, blame. Can't you just enjoy the win?

"When in doubt, BLAME!" "

tony wrote on Sep 30, 2008 10:00 AM:

" Where the 700 Billion Bailout Figure Come From
Source: Forbes 9.23.8 “Bad News for the Bailout”.
Some of the most basic details, including the $700 billion figure Treasury would use to buy up bad debt, are fuzzy. The $700-billion figure that won't really end up being anywhere near the actual cost because no one knows what all those mortgaged properties are really worth now anyway? Which is the whole problem in the first place because the institutions holding that paper don't know the value of what they're holding either, which is why everyone suddenly got so frightened?
You know where that very important $700-billion figure came from?
Here's a quote from that Forbes story:
"It's not based on any particular data point," a Treasury spokeswoman told Forbes.com Tuesday. "We just wanted to choose a really large number."

They made it up to be sufficiently enormous to frighten everyone into rapid action. And it worked. "

Native74 wrote on Sep 30, 2008 11:03 AM:

" Way to go Thompson (and for us taxpayers)! "

xmrs09 wrote on Sep 30, 2008 11:23 AM:

" Tony: Interesting info. Thanks.

I have a question for those of you questioning Thompson's voting record: Do you actually follow it day-to-day (or, everytime there's a vote) or just when the Register prints something? I am seriously curious. Thanks! "

tony wrote on Sep 30, 2008 11:36 AM:

" "The current excess leverage now unwinding was the result of a purposeful SEC exemption given to five firms. The events of the past year are not a mere accident, but are the results of a conscious and willful SEC decision to allow these firms to legally violate existing net capital rules that, in the past 30 years, had limited broker dealers debt-to-net capital ratio to 12-to-1. Instead, the 2004 exemption -- given only to 5 firms -- allowed them to lever up 30 and even 40 to 1. So while the SEC runs around reinstating short selling rules, and clueless Representatives mindlessly point to the wrong issue, we learn that it was the SEC allowed five firms — the three that have collapsed plus Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley — to more than double the leverage they were allowed to keep on their balance sheets and remove discounts that had been applied to the assets to protect them from defaults.
The financial services industry focuses its lobbying efforts around its immediate desires, and for more than the past decade, this focus has been on relaxing regulation of the mortgage lending and securitization market,"
At the national level, the top five spenders among mortgage brokers and bankers paid more than $31 million in lobbying fees and in political contributions since the beginning of last year. The two largest home-loan companies that have been bailed out by Congress, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, spent roughly $180 million on lobbying and campaign contributions since the 2000 election cycle.
A combination of factors eventually led to this blow up. People are demanding a RICO action be brought against these lenders and conglomerates. A grand jury is now looking at Countrywide and the Federal Department of Justice should also investigate Senator Dodd and others "

garrickh wrote on Sep 30, 2008 12:12 PM:

" Della, in case you didn't notice, Pelosi stood up before the vote and blamed the whole entire problem on george bush and the republicans. Who started blaming who here? Even Bill Clinton said that the democratic congress shares the blame, but republicans haven't been going around and trying to blame the entire mess on the democrats. The Dems can't resist trying to score policial points, even when the country is in danger. It's typical. "

tony wrote on Sep 30, 2008 12:40 PM:

" Who knew what and when?

All this brain power on Wall Street and the million regulations pumped out by Congress and no one saw this coming? None of them noticed a pattern of melt down emerging?

On January 14, 2008 the FDIC web site began posting the rules for reimbursing depositors in the event of a bank failure.

February 18, 2008. US banks borrow $50bn via new Fed facility

February 21, 2008: Wall Street Bank Run

February 22, 2008: Bank of America circulating confidential proposal to Congress seeking $739 billion bailout.

February 29, 2008. Risks seen for growing Fannie, Freddie.

March 3, 2008. New recession worry: Bank failures.

March 4, 2008. Gulf investors may not save CITIGROUP, Dubai executive says.
The FBI began investigating AIG back in March: "Federal investigators have been scrutinizing American International focusing on whether the insurance giant knowingly concealed mammoth losses that helped lead to the company's $85 billion federal bailout this month."

March 13, 2008. Latest Trouble Spot for Banks: Souring Home-Equity Loans. "Other types of consumer loans also are souring, including credit cards and auto loans. But delinquent home-equity loans are rising faster, representing 12.5% of all delinquent loans in the fourth quarter at Bank of America Corp., the largest U.S. bank in stock-market value. That was up from 9.4% in last year's first quarter.

September 23, 2008, while the tempest was building, an important admission came from White House Deputy Press Secretary Tony Fratto: "Fratto insisted that the plan was not slapped together and had been drawn up as a contingency over previous months and weeks by administration officials. He acknowledged lawmakers were getting only days to peruse it, but he said this should be enough." "

FerrariGTC wrote on Sep 30, 2008 2:29 PM:

" In the case of the current situation - it is the work of both parties, specifically those that sit on the House and Senate Finance and Banking Committees. Since they are responsible for oversight of all stated, plus Fannie and Freddie (Fo"nie & Fraudie), if you like, and take testimony from the Fed, they alone are responsible.
The President is not allowed to meddle with the Fed. I do not exonerate the Bush administration, but they really do not control these areas. The Presidentail candidates are just that, Candidates, and when one takes office this matter will have advanced to a different stage.

While I am going to remain non-partisan I would like to call to your attention one of your earlier posts. One in which you claim direct involvement with the creation of the 1990's RTC. Since I also have direct involvement in the form of a buyer during that period I can tell you - and all - that your effort created something corrupt. I would vehemently oppose any proposal to create any new agency that even looks like it. The so-called "contractors" doing the selling for the government were comprised of many of the same people who created the situation. This is not about politics - it is about corruption and greed, and until these elements are controlled it is woe to the taxpayer.
Hooray for those that bombarded their Congressperson - it is said that the call ratio approached 500 to 1 all saying NAY. "

FerrariGTC wrote on Sep 30, 2008 2:30 PM:

" cont~

On election day I hope this reflects as DOOM for those that ignored the will of people to pursue self-serving interests.
We, the taxpayers, are tired of those trying to make our Democracy into a Socialistic Plutocracy.
I give them the old "laugh in" award the "fickle finger of fate" "

kevin wrote on Sep 30, 2008 2:44 PM:

" Fannie Mae Eases Credit To Aid Mortgage Lending

By STEVEN A. HOLMES

Published: September 30, 1999

In a move that could help increase home ownership rates among minorities and low-income consumers, the Fannie Mae Corporation is easing the credit requirements on loans that it will purchase from banks and other lenders.

Fannie Mae, the nation's biggest underwriter of home mortgages, has been under increasing pressure from the Clinton Administration to expand mortgage loans among low and moderate income people and felt pressure from stock holders to maintain its phenomenal growth in profits.

In addition, banks, thrift institutions and mortgage companies have been pressing Fannie Mae to help them make more loans to so-called subprime borrowers. These borrowers whose incomes, credit ratings and savings are not good enough to qualify for conventional loans, can only get loans from finance companies that charge much higher interest rates -- anywhere from three to four percentage points higher than conventional loans.

''Fannie Mae has expanded home ownership for millions of families in the 1990's by reducing down payment requirements,'' said Franklin D. Raines, Fannie Mae's chairman and chief executive officer. ''Yet there remain too many borrowers whose credit is just a notch below what our underwriting has required who have been relegated to paying significantly higher mortgage rates in the so-called subprime market.''

In moving, even tentatively, into this new area of lending, Fannie Mae is taking on significantly more risk, which may not pose any difficulties during flush economic times. But the government-subsidized corporation may run into trouble in an economic downturn, prompting a government "

jt wrote on Sep 30, 2008 2:46 PM:

" cheers to mrs. pelosi for doing the right thing.

this issue is getting stale. yawn!!! "

14obama wrote on Sep 30, 2008 3:26 PM:

" Are we being made fools of ? I thought the financial crisis was an urgent matter. Then, please tell me something ! Why in Gods' name are the ones responsible for getting us back on track taking the Jewish holidays off ? Just when I thought I'd heard it all,another slap in the face ! "

tiredofcomplainingnapkins wrote on Sep 30, 2008 3:26 PM:

" Hey Jwk, how are all of those politicians at fault for this crisis. The people at fault are the people who decided to buy houses they knew they couldnt afford. As a loan officer I know every single piece of information is on paper for potential buyers. They knew the risk before they signed the papers, unless they were stupid enough to sign the papers without fully reading them first. This whole crisis is because of the american people and thats why we should be bailing out the banks, because were the ones that are defaulting on are homes. WE signed the papers and we decided to not pay are mortgages because we couldn't or because the price of are homes are worth less then when we bought them. There is no one to blame but ourselves "

jfz wrote on Sep 30, 2008 4:10 PM:

" Let's see, McCain and Obama were for the bailout to one degree or another. It failed and people are dissing McCain but not Obama. Thompson voted against the bailout...Does that make him a good guy or bad guy? "

jwk wrote on Sep 30, 2008 4:43 PM:

" Hey Complaining, Most of the Mortgage defaults were Investors buying and trying to roll the houses. And IF Fanny Mae & Freddie Mac by using the Race card, pushed loans on to people that couldn't qualify or pay the mortagage payments, Who's fault is it really? The one's who got rich are Franklin Raines, Jamie Gorelick, Jim Johnson, and Barney Frank, on the backs of us Taxpayers who will be bailing out both sides of this Ridiculous Situation!! All supported by Barney and Maxine Waters. SOmeone's heads should roll over this and at the very lweast, SHUT down that Corrupt organization!!! "

pbsm777 wrote on Sep 30, 2008 5:02 PM:

" The reason McCain is getting grief is because yesterday morning his surrogate Mitt Romney was on the Today show at 8 a.m. bragging that "Thank God for John Mccain. We couldn't get this passed without all the hard work he put in over the weekend." McCain at 9 a.m. was taking credit for it passing while campaigning in Ohio. Meanwhile the vote hadn't even occurred, but he was so quick to congratulate himself on being a leader and teambuilder, all the while NOT POLITICIZING it in any way. But when it blew up in their face they cried about hurt feelings from Pelosi's speech.
For being tough Republicans they sure can't handle it when somebody says mean things....talk about whiners.... I still laugh that they blame Clinton for stuff and he hasn't been in office for 8 years. All that does is show how WEAK they are because while having control of Congress for 7 years and the presidency for 8 years, anything that goes wrong must be Clinton's fault. How Lame. "

pbsm777 wrote on Sep 30, 2008 5:15 PM:

" I do agree that there are dems like Barney Frank and such that need to be held accountable for their parts in this mess. Criminals.

Unfortunately, McCain has sold his soul for this presidential run. It is a fact his campaign manager was on the payroll for $30,000.00 PER MONTH thru August of this year as the PR/Marketing firm for Fannie and Freddie. His excuse was "I didn't really do anything for them the last 8 months....."well give the money back then for FALSE billing charges. Afterall, the Taxpayers paid that marketing fee to him when they got bailed out. Way to go McCain - There's a Straight Talk Express bullet point for you on HONESTY and CHARACTER.
Your own campaign manager ripping us off while you blindly ignore the chaos around you. That must be Obama's fault, too? "

pbsm777 wrote on Sep 30, 2008 5:29 PM:

" Just a note, I'm glad the bailout was voted down. This is just another "nationalization attempt" by the Bush White House. AIG ibailout was pure Socialism. The government now owns 80% of the largest insurance/investment company in the US.

Henry Paulson wants the bailout money and "God" powers to oversee the bailout. This from the guy who ran Goldman Sachs before coming over to Treasury Dept. Who do you think he's going to bail out first? Where do you think he's going back to work on January 20th? He is "On Loan" from Goldman Sachs to the government. Must be Clinton's fault. No wait. It's Obama's fault. No wait, Nancy Pelosi just said mean things....

I did my part and registered my "vote no" to Thompson's office. Did you? "

Vercingetorex wrote on Sep 30, 2008 6:00 PM:

" There is more than enough blame to go around. It's a huge mess, people.
Barney Frank, Clinton, Bush, Maxine (stupidest member of congress) Waters, etc. They all bear blame.
George Bush bears the ultimate responsibility since he is president, after all, and still backs Paulson and Cox (who were either asleep or willfully ignorant of this impending crisis).
But thanks to Thompson for getting this one right and not being rushed into doing something foolish by Bush and Pelosi before all the facts are out.
Pelosi and Frank need to be thrown out of power for their shameful partisanship while America burns and hopefully the adults will step in and reassert reality in Washington DC. "

db76 wrote on Sep 30, 2008 6:03 PM:

" Privatized gain, socialized losses. It's the Republican way. "

kevin wrote on Sep 30, 2008 6:19 PM:

" Unfortunately, Pelosi will easily "twist the arms" of 11 Democrats and the next bailout will pass... "

tiredofcomplainingnapkins wrote on Sep 30, 2008 6:19 PM:

" To jwk, I'm not sure where you recieved your information but I wouldn't say most of the defaults are investors. Unless your consider people who bought houses with the hopes they would go up in price and be able to refinance or sell for a profit as investors. I would consider investors people that own 5 or more homes and there main business is flipping houses. And aren't those people regular American people who showed be shouldering most the blame for letting there house be foreclosed instead of finding alternative ways to pay the mortgage? And I don't remember Fannie Or Freddie sticking a gun to anyones head and making them buy a house, no matter what there race was. This whole mess is because of too many stupid Americans who thought they could buy a house when they couldn't and then thought it would always increase in value, which it won't and now they don't want to take responsibility and decide to just walk away. People being forclosed on should have to do community service or something its almost like they just robbed the banks and now there robbing the american people "

dellasumbrella wrote on Sep 30, 2008 9:37 PM:

" tired....napkins: "stupid Americans"? "Letting there [sic] house be foreclosed instead of finding alternative ways to pay the mortgage"? "...thought they could buy a house when they couldn't...."? "stupid enough to sign the papers before fully reading them first"?
Yes, we are a country that truly values its citizens, aren't we.
Unless, of course, they're poor, minimally educated, and have been assured that yes! This is America! Land of opportunity! And even they can buy that house they always dreamed of having for their families!
Because the banks want everyone's money, and the banks know that if these buyers hit the wall, the banks can just whisk their homes away and reap the benefits of inflated equity. Or could.
In this mass compulsion to blame, when no one except perhaps the experts fully understand the complexity of cause/effect and solution, I am certain of only one thing -- that those home buyers who were naively pursuing the American Dream of having their own property, a home for their families, are NOT the ones to blame.
Oh, sure, we could say they should all go through training in economics, real estate markets, and have graduated from Contract Read & Understand 101 and have found a secure job that pays a liveable wage before being allowed to buy a house.
Not everyone enters into a contract with the expectation that the other party is likely to take advantage of them. So those who trust are to blame.
Well pluck me an apple. "

skeptic wrote on Sep 30, 2008 9:53 PM:

" it wasn't just mike thompson, who i will be eternally grateful to on his vote. it was the majority of both democrats (well, 40% is close) and republicans who listened to their constituents for once.
wall st. wanted us to bail them out. they talk about assets which are backed by 30 to one ratios.this is not about houses or mortgages but worthless paper called derivatives and cbos and cdos. if we paid off all those corrupt, 0% interes mortgages it would total only 200 billion, that would mean free houses for all the forclosed. so who would get the other 500 billion ? (or eventually, 5 trillion, ruining the value of a dollar.) a bunch of people on wall st. who would have been felons just a few years ago. before then, predatory lending was illegal and rightly so. it helped cause the great depression.
every thinking democrat and republican, every liberal or conservative , called or e-mailed or wrote their congress about this. they all said no with one voice.
a new third party could consist of all the demos and repubs who voted against this. they listened to their mail. they really stood up for us. they went against pelosi, bush, mccain, and obama .
this event has brought my conservative and liberal and libertarian and green friends together as nothing before in my lifetime.
mike has opposed pelosi on major issues like impeachment, which kevin should look up on the john birch society website. they've been pushing for it since bush lied to get us into the war.
the elections are in 5 weeks. let's vote out anyone who supports the bailout of the wall st. elite and threatens our paychecks. let's support the corageous, like mike, who listen to us. "

tiredofcomplainingnapkins wrote on Sep 30, 2008 10:11 PM:

" To dellasumbrella,
You just agreed with my point.
If your poor and uneducated then you don't deserve to own a property you can't afford. And why aren't the people pursing the American dream of owning there own properties the one to blame? They signed the papers saying they could afford to pay a bank the money loaned to them to buy a house. Now there saying, "oh we can't pay it so were just going to walk away". And as for you saying that these people entered a contract and the banks are taking advatage of them, I think that the people took advatage of the banks, taking money from them to buy houses they couldn't afford and then walking away when they decided not to try and pay for them anymore. Everything you need to know is there when signing loan papers. Everyone is trying to blame others, but they should look in the mirror and blame themselves. They should ask themselves why did I buy this house when I knew it would stretch me to thin. Why did I telll the bank I made this much money when I knew in my heart that I did't make that much. Stop blaming others and stand up and take responsibilty for your own actions. Banks tried to help people out and loan them money and now there stabbing the banks in the back "

dellasumbrella wrote on Sep 30, 2008 11:08 PM:

" tired....napkins: The part I wrote that agreed with you? I think that was the facetious part.
Foreclosure isn't people just deciding they don't want to pay anymore and walking away. It's the banks saying, we refuse to renegotiate your loan so you might be able to pay, so get out. Well, the banks lost on that gamble this time. And it isn't the people who lost their homes that we hear doing the blaming. It's the investors, the politicians, the pundits, the blog posters, whoever they are. I don't think I've heard anyone here saying they lost their home.
Where are those people who lost their homes? I know there are a lot of empty, foreclosed homes in American Canyon. Some not so nice houses, too. Just sitting there. And those lousy fools who thought they also deserved a piece of the American Dream? My guess is, they found some dump to rent, or moved in with relatives.
No one "takes" money from the banks. They buy it. And it costs a lot. And for those people, they lost everything they paid for the money they thought would help them own a home.
Banks bet on risky loans. Sometimes they lose, but usually they win. Banks make fortunes that way. That's why they do it. You didn't know that? "

reason-ator wrote on Sep 30, 2008 11:47 PM:

" What's unsettling is that our legislators are more concerned with aligning properly to best further their careers with little regard to the impact of their votes. "

14obama wrote on Oct 1, 2008 8:56 AM:

" You gotta change your name,'tireofcomplainingnapkins' ! That's all you do ! I know that many of these folks had no idea they were being taken advantage of. They trusted the real estate agent to tell the whole truth. If they had, these folks wouldn't have signed on the dotted line ! Makes me wonder if you told the truth to all of your clients. "

tiredofcomplainingnapkins wrote on Oct 1, 2008 10:30 AM:

" To 14obama,
Thats the issue i'm arguing, Instead of these people reading the information given to them they just decided to turn a blind eye and sign the papers, every ounce of information about your loan and its rate and when and if it will adjust is RIGHT THERE in the paperwork. Why didn't these people READ IT? If a real estate agent told these people to jump off a 500 ft cliff and they would live, should they do it? Buying a house is for most people the biggest purchase they will ever make, you think they would read all the paperwork and be fully aware of what they are getting into before they buy. These people took advatage of themselves by not being honest and not taking the time to find out what they were getting into, and now there ruining the enitre economy for everyone, sounds pretty greedy to me.

To dellasumbrella, Why should the banks negotiate with people? The people signed a contract with the bank saying they will pay them a certain amount of money, now the people are refusing to. In any other transaction these people would be taken to court and would lose in a second. And people losing there homes are protesting and complaining in SF as I sit here and type. Banks do bet on risky loans, But ulitimatly who is SUPPOSE to pay the bank back? The borrowers, the american people, They borrowed money that wasn't theirs and now refuse to pay it back and in doing so are ruining the economy. How would you feel if you let a friend borrow 100k and they decided to not pay you back? "

MyWrites wrote on Oct 1, 2008 10:53 AM:

" tiredofcomplainingnapkins wrote " If your poor and uneducated then you don't deserve to own a property you can't afford."

How typically compassionate & conservative! Shoot the messenger and blame the victim for their own demise.

Of course there were a lot of people trying to make money on house flips, even popular TV shows encouraging people to jump in. Many of those "flippers" were and are contractors trying to make additional bucks on the side - I know a few of them.

But the majority of these home buyers were not stupid. They were ignorant as first time buyers and relied on the licensed "PROFESSIONALS" to help them through the confusing maze of paperwork. Few home buyers read all the paper. Many are working too hard (maybe 2 jobs) and long hours and trying to raise their families. It's a huge investment in time reading the encyclopedic pile of loan agreements, let alone, comprehend the legalese. They relied on the pros. And in many cases the pros, to be polite, let them down because of their own vested greed.

When you do have mortgage companies and real estate brokers telling you that you qualify, why would you not trust them and attempt to enhance your social and/or economic position?

So it's rather disingenuous and pompous of you to call them "stupid", "undeserving" and the cause of the problem. Your view smacks of economic elitism...let's not blame the boys at the top, shall we? "

MyWrites wrote on Oct 1, 2008 11:29 AM:

" Hey tony - let's not forget the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act of November, 1999. The final bill was overwhelmingly passed by the bone heads in Congress (who wanted to appear PC) and was virtually 'veto proof legislation'. President Bill Clinton (an ardent supporter of minority home ownership) had little influence in the last months of his final term.

Want to know which party Gramm, Leach and Bliley belonged to? There's a lot of blame to spread around here. We need to vigorously investigate the role of lobbyists in our nation's political structure and the degree to which they are able to manipulate the process. These are the enablers of greed and influence. Think we need more regs here? I do! "

musikluvr wrote on Oct 1, 2008 12:30 PM:

" Thompson's got the publicity he wants but he won't hold his position for very long. Pelosi will scare Thompson into changing his vote. "

tiredofcomplainingnapkins wrote on Oct 1, 2008 3:10 PM:

" To mywrites
Make sense to me, if your poor than you shouldnt own property you can't afford. That goes with everything in life, if your poor there is things you shouldn't try to buy if you can't afford it, and a house is probably the biggest purchase of anyones life, so they should know what they can and can't afford. Also if your making the BIGGEST PURCHASE of your life you would make the time to read over every single piece of information. Loan documents are typically about 50 pages. You can lock loan rates in for up to 90 days, your telling me people don't have enough time to read 50 pages in 90 days. Give me a break here, stop defeding these people, these people borrowed money that didn't belong to them with the agreement to pay it back and now there saying no were not going to pay it back. I don't see what people dont understand about that. They loved the banks when they were approving them for the loan and giving them the money but now they blame the banks because they can't pay there mortgage. STAND UP AND TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR YOUR OWN MISTAKES. EVERYTHING is disclosed in the loan papers, if you can read then ITS ALL RIGHT THERE FOR YOU. If you can't read then you better find someone to read it for you or else you deserve what you got because your to uneducated to know how to read "

14obama wrote on Oct 1, 2008 3:47 PM:

" Hey 'napkins' ! Looks like you've got a buch of folks disagreeing with you.
Look,if I was poor and uneducated,like you say,then why even make a deal with me in the first place ? Sounds like you're taking advantage of me when you offer me a brand new home with a place where the kiddies can play and whatever else you use to seal the deal. NO,not 'sounds like' ! You Are using me for your greedy,selfrighteous goals ! To make a buck,period ! "

dellasumbrella wrote on Oct 1, 2008 3:51 PM:

" napkins: Sounds like some real estate "gotcha" game. "We know what the fine print says, and what the legalistic contractual language means, but you don't, and all we're gonna tell you is YOU QUALIFY!!!" And then, when the interest rates or balloon payments or accelerated principal payments, or whatever the heck lingo they are hits the fan, you just say, "GOTCHA!"

Yeah, go ahead, blame the victim for his ignorance. We all didn't get the best education we could, did we? So if we learned to write, we'll get our idea across. If we learned poker, we'll be good at gambling. If we learned real estate tactics, we'll know what we're doing when we buy a home.

And the best part? We can be really, really disdainful and disparaging of those who didn't learn the specific little skill we did. "

tiredofcomplainingnapkins wrote on Oct 1, 2008 5:00 PM:

" to 14obama
Problem is your still not saying the owners should take any responsilbily. If it sounds to good to be true it usually is. It sounds like to me the borrowers are being greedy and selfrighteous by buying a home they knew they couldn't afford and turning a blind eye to the paperwork they shouldve read, these people took advantage of the banks loose lending, and if the banks don't lend to some people then we hear either the race card or the place card.

To dellasumbrella,
There isn't specific real estate skills needed when buying a house, just COMMON SENSE and if you don't have that then your going to get taken advatage of your entire life. ADJUSTABLE RATE MORTGAGE, that means the mortgage rate will adjust, sounds pretty straight forward to me. If you don't understand THEN LEARN IT, the internet has everything available to learn about real estate, the library does too. WHAT HAPPEND TO PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY? EVERYONE IS QUICK TO BLAME SOMEONE ELSE. TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR YOUR ACTIONS.

When someone murders someone you say take responsibility for it, don't blame it on tv or music or other people. Whats the diifference with someone letting there house get foreclosed. TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR IT, its there fault and no one elses.]

When did America become a place of blame everyone else for your problems instead of STANDING UP AND TAKING RESPONSIBILITY FOR YOUR OWN ACTIONS "

dellasumbrella wrote on Oct 1, 2008 6:57 PM:

" Napkin -- You talkin' to ME?
Who says I don't take responsibility for my mistakes? I didn't lose my house. And I knew my Obama sign was likely to get stolen, but I put it out in my yard anyway. My bad.
Sure people should take responsibility, but your murder example is perfect. I think we DO need to look at circumstances that create the murderer and change those as well as punish the murderer. But if the system isn't working and we get more and more killings, something other than punishment has to take place, or we'll just be watching people die and be spending all our money on jailing or killing their murderers. Blame doesn't solve the problem. Changes do. Boiling it down to bad/good, stupid/smart is a waste of breath. "

MyWrites wrote on Oct 1, 2008 8:37 PM:

" tiredofcomplainingnapkins wrote "If you don't understand THEN LEARN IT, the internet has everything available to learn about real estate, the library does too. WHAT HAPPEND TO PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY?"

Then by your standard you shouldn't complain if you have a bad drug interaction with a medication your health provider prescribed. After all, you should be able to read everything you need to know about various drug interactions on the internet. Why would you want to trust a licensed medical professional with advice about health when you can do it yourself - PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY! "

tiredofcomplainingnapkins wrote on Oct 1, 2008 9:58 PM:

" To Mywrites
Now your just being silly, you can learn about loans on the internet or in a book in about 15 minutes. I'm not saying everyone that buys a house should be a rocket scientist, or a medical professor, these take much more knowledge and years to learn about. But reading some loan documents and being able to do simple multiplication to figure out what your loan payment could be when your rate adjusts is simple elementary reading and math. Now if you can't even do simple elmentary math and reading maybe you shouldn't own property or be in the postition for a bank to loan you 100s of thousands of dollars to. Maybe the banks are at fault and should have been doing competency tests before handing over that much money to make sure someone isn't a complete moron. If you knew you had an adjustable rate mortgage then you KNEW that the rate would adjust, its right there in plain english, its actually the name of the loan how much easier could it be for someone "

FerrariGTC wrote on Oct 2, 2008 1:42 PM:

" What's his vote now?

Senators who voted No

Here's the quick list of the senators who voted NO on bailout/economic rescue.

Allard (R)
Barasso (R)
Brownback (R)
Bunning (R)
Cantwell (D)
Cochran (R)
Crapo (R)
DeMint (R)
Dole (R)
Dorgan (D)
Enzi (R)
Feingold (D)
Inhofe (R)
Johnson (D)
Landrieu (D)
Nelson (FL) (D)
Roberts (R)
Sanders (I)
Sessions (R)
Shelby (R)
Stabenow (D)
Tester (D)
Vitter (R)
Wicker (R)
Wyden (D) "

kevin wrote on Oct 3, 2008 5:06 AM:

" No Feinstien or Boxer? Surprise.... "

pbsm777 wrote on Oct 3, 2008 10:30 AM:

" Kevin - The $100 billion in pork that was added was to appease the HOUSE REPUBLICANS to get them to vote yes on the bill. FACT.

Don't let the facts get in the way. And yes, McCSAME and Obama both voted for this bill. And the God powers are still in it.

Register your No vote to our representative who voted no last time. If you don't regsiter your "NO"vote then you can't complain....anybody can whine. "

14obama wrote on Oct 3, 2008 5:36 PM:

" Sorry "napkins" but you don't have all of the answers. The whole ordeal lies in the fact that Greed and corruption has/is permeating our society. The tenacles of greed is everywhere ! Tell me you don't see it and I'll call you a liar.
Our country has had a history of being "in God we trust". It's changed alot in my years. Honesty is the key in saving our country ! Anything less and we lose all that God has given us.
Yes,there are those who don't understand or perceive the fine print. An honest agent sure would have saved his client some hardship dpwn the road. So,let's be honest here ! "

musikluvr wrote on Oct 5, 2008 1:26 PM:

" The best analysis of this circus is in Willie Brown's column in the SF Chron on Sunday 10/5. He calls Thompson an "Odd Ball". "

jwk wrote on Oct 7, 2008 7:14 AM:

" Hey Complaining, Fannie Mae & Fredie Mac under Clintoon and His People (1999) DID in FACT force Banks and Lenders to loan to The Minorites and pooror face fines and/or No New Loans.. And Barney Frank & Maxine Watters defending this funky organization and called the regulators who knew this was a train wreck, Racist!! Haven't you heard the tapes of the Hearings?? Why these 7 or 8 people aren't in Chains is unbelievable!!! Not quite a Gun, but just as effective. All to get the Minority votes!! And it does appear Most bloggers are Tired of Your Complaining for sure!!! "

jwk wrote on Oct 7, 2008 7:24 AM:

" DOn't look now, But Good Old Mikie Flip-Flopped again. BUT he did vote against it BEFORE he voted for it. SOund Familiar?? Typical Democrat practices from the top down and all through the past 15 years. At least they are consistent at Destroying what is Good for America (Republican Ideas) and Flip-Flopping on every issue!! It's amazing anyone would vote for The Biggest Radical Socialist Flip-Flopper yet!!! "

freeport56 wrote on Oct 7, 2008 4:16 PM:

" He voted against it, before he voted for it "

freeport56 wrote on Oct 7, 2008 4:23 PM:

" The answer is really simple. Fire all the electeds, disolve Freddie and Fannie. If you do not have the income to buy and pay for a home you can't get one.

It is not a real estate issue, it is a bad mortgage issue.

All the electeds knew and did nothing. Thery just $1.8 trillion of our dollars away to guys getting $500 million bonuses. Fire them all! "

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