In the last six months John McCain has transformed himself from a classic free market conservative to something that can fairly be called socialism. It could be that he is not even aware of this, because this transformation in his treatment of foreclosed housing has never been accompanied by any explanation of his change in philosophy.
I will refer to a published letter of mine in the San Diego Union Tribune:
Re: Good Dollar Sense (Editorial July 8)
To the Editor:
You praise John McCain for "resisting the temptation to spend billions to bail out homeowners," which certainly would be praiseworthy; and was his position until his speech on April 15th, where, without explanation, he reversed himself with these words.
And we must start with the subprime mortgage crisis, with the hundreds of thousands of citizens who played by the rules, yet now fear losing their houses. Under the HOME plan I have proposed, our government will offer these Americans direct and immediate help that can make all the difference:
If you can't make your payments, and you're in danger of foreclosure, you will be able to go to any Post Office and pick up a form for a new HOME loan. In place of your flawed mortgage loan, you'll be eligible for a new, 30-year fixed-rate loan backed by the United States government.
For this bailout, he says the "government" will guarantee the loan, as if the government guarantee isn't provided by the very taxpayers he claims to defend by continuing a deficit causing tax rate that is leading, even without this bailout, to destruction of the American dollar.
His proposed foreclosure bailout, like that sponsored by the Democrats, will accrue ultimately to the cabal of mortgage, banking and financial corporations that created this bubble.
The fiscally responsible John McCain you describe is certainly an attractive candidate, if only he existed in reality.
ARODB (actual name printed)
Tonight, in what can only be described as a desperate attempt at populism at its most irresponsible, he goes even further:
As President of the United States I would order the Secretary of the Treasury to buy up the bad home loan mortgages of America and renegotiate at the new value of the homes, at the diminished value of the homes, and let people make the payments , and stay in their homes.
O.K. That is certainly helpful for those who bought during the peak of the bubble. But, of course, it means that their neighbors who didn't take the bait, and may still be renting, are going to pay the difference between what the government buys the mortgages for, and what they are worth . In fact he acknowledges this with the following:
Would it be expensive? (for the taxpayers) Yes, but until we stabilize home values in America we will never be able to stabilize jobs.
And here his admitted lack of understanding of economics is on full display. Just how does the taxpayer paying the difference in the mortgages of the bubble price and the more current price create jobs? But this is something he never explained.
Now here's the ultimate of absurdity, as he proclaims:
And this is my proposal. It's not Senator Obama's proposal and it's not President Bush's proposal.
He is saying that this is not President Bush's proposal, which means it is not the proposal to do the exact same thing by appropriating 700 billion dollars to buy up the exact type of mortgages he describes.
He acts like this bill was never suggested, much less passed, much less supported with great fanfare by.....someone with the name of John McCain, who also claims to be the Republican candidate for president.
If he did not have an outside chance to be the next president of the United States, I would actually have sympathy for the guy. He is that pathetic.