Posted 8/31/2007 05:28:00 PM by Douglas

I love it when there's a story about Bush and "a modest proposal" shows up in the first line. I wonder if somehow eating babies is going to help out with this so-called "mortgage crisis" because I'm sure that they know nothing about satire.

President Bush on Friday announced a set of modest proposals to deal with an alarming rise in mortgage defaults that have contributed to turbulent financial markets over recent weeks.

This is gonna be good. Go on. . .

"It's not the government's job to bail out speculators or those who made the decision to buy a home they knew they could never afford," Bush said in the Rose Garden. "Yet there are many American homeowners who could get through this difficult time with a little flexibility from their lenders or a little help from their government."

Ok, I'm with you so far. Don't know how this is any of the government's business, but I am aware of the world we live in, so keep going.

Bush's proposals unveiled Friday are designed to help combat those defaults. They would make it easier for borrowers now holding adjustable rate mortgages that are resetting to higher monthly payments to refinance those loans using the resources of the Federal Housing Administration. The FHA is a Depression-era agency created to help low and moderate-income Americans afford homes.

Whoa, Jack. Here's were you lost me. Why can't these people just go to another bank and refi if their ARMs have exploded and they can't afford their payment? So the government is going to use FHA money to give a loan to people that are obviously high credit risks and too stupid to understand what a ballooning ARM is going to do to their payment? How is this not a blatant government buy-out?

Under the Bush proposal, which FHA officials said would take effect immediately, an estimated 60,000 homeowners who have fallen behind on payments because their mortgages have reset, would be able to refinance with FHA-insured loans. That marks a significant change because FHA does not now insure refinanced loans from borrowers who are currently delinquent.

So where's my cheap, government secured loan? I bought a house I could afford and understand the concept of compound interest. Where's my handout? At what point are we going to stop continually rewarding people for being so fucking stupid? Probably soon after we stop electing them.