They can't insure children or stop a runaway president but, by Christ can they ever spend our money!

This is America, where our government always finds a way to privatize profits and socialize losses.

Hey big spender!

I got my FHA appraisal certification a few weeks ago. Looks like I will be able to buy TF for everyone next year.

Nothing like government help to teach people how to manage their own money.

They're not even pretending there is any separation any more.

Why are you folks worrying? The FHA won't finance a home for more than it's worth, so this isn't going to accomplish anything. This'll be nearly as ineffective as the president's retarded Hope plan for faith based mortgage restructuring.

flaEsq: Why are you folks worrying? The FHA won't finance a home for more than it's worth, so this isn't going to accomplish anything. This'll be nearly as ineffective as the president's retarded Hope plan for faith based mortgage restructuring.

I keep wondering why it's even the Fed's business in the first place.

Hey Fed!!, shut the hell up and go build some roads or something.

/ferchrissakes

flaEsq: The FHA won't finance a home for more than it's worth, so this isn't going to accomplish anything

It's more psychological than anything. Gives everybody, especially the banks, a chance to catch their breaths and act at a level slightly better than EVERYBODY PANIC!

I don't mind a bailout, as long as everybody from this period who had an adjustable rate mortgage is given an indian burn from a burly Russian once a day for the next ten years.

/hurry up with that amendment, Senator

anyone interested, the only nay came from John Kyl (R-AZ).

The no-votes were Biden (D-DE), Boxer (D-CA), Clinton (D-NY), Dodd (D-CT), McCain (R-AZ) and Obama (D-IL)

I don't like it, but I am glad.

FEMA - the "F" stands for Formaldehyde?

This whole buyout is helping institutional investors who bought packaged mortgage investments.

Bush refuses to pay for health insurance for US children but he wants the federal government to make sure foreign investors get their investment returns.

Fargin bastages.

W00t! Hooray, party of personal responsibility!

"The House bill would lift it as high as $829,750 in some areas."

You farkers. You're telling me a first-time homebuyer got a subprime loan on a $900,000 property, and at least a few Congresscritters want him or her bailed out?

I know why a bailout is necessary in the larger scheme of things, but for Christs sake, just drop the fig leaf, give the banks a whole mess of cash, and put these people in prison. The only difference between the plan they've got, and my plan is, my plan makes it slightly less likely that this will happen again.

/DRTFLegislation
//Angry lower-middle class married no kids been saving for two years now for a down payment.

wowzer97pooh: This whole buyout is helping institutional investors who bought packaged mortgage investments.

Ding!

Little thought has been given to the actual homeowner. The worry is over the financial well-being of the owners of the loans. It has nothing to do with 'bailing out homeowners' for being stupid... although for some that will be a side effect of the legislation.

Now then, everyone walk to one side of the room or the other and then yell at the top of your lungs at each other.

I'm going to sit under the table cloth in the middle of the room, scribble down what I hear, and actually try to work something out...

It's just good sense. Why not? I certainly can afford a little extra money from my lavish lifestyle of no healthcare, gasoline I can't afford, and a job I can't afford to leave for the mere possibility of something more tolerable. Thanks, My Fine Senator Friends. And live well now on our dime, because when you come back around as a stunted, diseased cockroach, things are going to get a little more challenging. Especially if you come back in my house. Sick, overworked people are grouchy, and I've got big boots!

Ok, but when am I going to get reimbursed for my disastrous beef-and-carrot-popcicle investment?

Meh. So long as this covers houses people are buying to live in and NOT investment properties, I'm OK.

The home buyers benefiting from this took a reckless gamble and won.

Seven years ago I could have gotten an ARM and bought five times the house I'm living in now. I chose to get the small house with fixed interest mortgage payments I knew I could pretty easily afford no matter what interest rates or the economy did.

My loss, their gain. Good for them. I hope all those horrible months of wondering when they were going to lose the roof over their heads was worth it.

The real reason for passing this measure, of course was not to help the average homeowner. It was to help out the banks and mortgage companies. Those guys don't want a bunch of houses that are losing value-- they want money.

I don't know what kind of damaging cascade effect with foreclosures/plummeting real estate values this prevented, but I bet it was a factor as well.

Congress changes the rules all the time to benefit big business. I don't really have a problem with a minor rule change to keep people from losing their homes.

Besides, how much is this measure actually costing American taxpayers? A lot? A little? Anything at all?

This is another fine example of how the Feds (outside of the duties they are structurally suited to perform) only subsidize stupidity, irresponsibility, and recklessness.

The right reliably complains when the Feds subsidize individual stupidity, the left reliably complains when the Feds subsidize corporate stupidity.

The end result of subsidizing stupidity in either case is the same- more stupidity.

Stupid should have a cost associated with it, so stupid acts aren't repeated. Remove the cost, get more stupidity.

Not that hard a concept.

I'm 26, and I pay a mortgage on an apartment. I live in White Plains, about a block away from Trump Tower City Center. I wanted one of the Trump apartments, but I realized I couldn't afford it. Why exactly am I bailing out people/investors that gambled and lost?

Gov't created this problem by keeping interest rates artificially low, creating the housing bubble.

Now gov't steps in to solve it.

Government: the cause of, and cure for, all life's problems.

And better yet, it grows larger and more powerful every time it's called on to "solve" a problem.

SilentStrider: anyone interested, the only nay came from John Kyl (R-AZ).

The no-votes were Biden (D-DE), Boxer (D-CA), Clinton (D-NY), Dodd (D-CT), McCain (R-AZ) and Obama (D-IL)

Biden, McCain, Clinton, and Obama were on the campaign trail, so what are Dodd's and Boxer's excuses for not showing up?

Cyberluddite: This is America, where our government always finds a way to privatize profits and socialize losses.

You sir, have made my night.

There are many situations in which it makes sense to ask taxpayers to dig into their pockets and help people in need.

This is not one of those situations. "Stupid" should not be considered a disability.

Hey, by the way folks. All those $450k new construction homes. Ya, they have about a 10 year lifespan given the materials they were built with. Flakeboard on studs with a bit o' foam? Dear god there are hollywood props with more structure and durability.

They aren't buying the loans subby. They're raising the FHA limit so people can refinance into FHA loans.

Yes, they're federally insured. But no, the government doesn't "buy" anything. The homeowner will still owe the same amount of principal.

Why is bailing out stupid mortgage lenders and investors any better than bailing out stupid homebuyers?

They made poor investment choices. If I do that and lose my shirt, I get a tax write off and that's it. But these jokers get the gubment bending over backwards to protect their investments.

Fark 'em. Fark 'em all in the arse with a Ditch Witch.

helix400: They aren't buying the loans subby. They're raising the FHA limit so people can refinance into FHA loans.

Who backs the FHA, genius? Hint: It's a part of HUD.

undflickertail: Biden, McCain, Clinton, and Obama were on the campaign trail, so what are Dodd's and Boxer's excuses for not showing up?

Dodd was probably on the campaign trail as well. As for Boxer, I have no idea.

Savings and Loan Scandal - Part II - and this time it's going to cost.

200,000 homes?
The prediction is 2 million American families will lose their homes in 2008 alone.
This bill is an attempt to make sure that the number of defaults doesn't hit the
threshold that would require many of our fine financial institutions to buy back
all those aggregated loan packages they sold to foreign suckers investors.

You ain't seen nothing yet.
This is going to be an economic bloodbath.

Still cheaper then the money they gave the oil companies

helix400: But no, the government doesn't "buy" anything.

Furthermore:

During budget planning for 2008 HUD had been projecting $143,000,000 budget shortfall stemming from the FHA program. This is the first time in three decades HUD had made a request to Congress for a taxpayer subsidy. Even though FHA is statutorily required to be budget neutral, the GAO is projecting taxpayer funded subsidies of half a billion dollars over the next three years, if no changes are made to the FHA program.

Can't wait until they revise that "half a billion dollar" number. That'll be fun.

NewportBarGuy: During budget planning for 2008 HUD had been projecting $143,000,000 budget shortfall stemming from the FHA program.

So did the FHA buy the property, erasing the homeowners principal? Or will the homeowner have to pay back the loan, with interest?

sweet..

helix400: Or will the homeowner have to pay back the loan, with interest?

You are failing, intentionally, to ask the pertinent question; "Can the homeowners pay back the loans?"

Nice of you to deflect. Since when was it the mission of the U.S. government to invest in risky home loans? Shouldn't the banks that issued, and investors that bought these loans be dealing with this?

If the homeowners can't pay, the houses get repossessed, sold, and housing prices go down. Efficient markets at work. Yet, you advocate a governmental intrusion into the market to keep prices artificially high. Why is that?

And more people will buy into the system with the false belief that the market is back up, smart people will get out quickly to save their own asses, people like myself will avoid buying homes because the risk and the money is not worth the dream of home ownership, and the system will crash and my meager taxes might pay someone to type up a paper telling someone else how much the interest from this whole circus will eventually cost us.

At this farking point, why not just buy every farking American a house and just cut out the corporations? Seriously. We're blowing billions on useless shiat, so why not just stop the bullshiat and buy us all a house. Easiest farking solution ever.

It's not just the stupid buyers who are to blame. It's the banks and lending agencies that approved the loans. I say let them learn their lessons the hard way: no bailouts!

Funny how when it's 400 billion to kill brown folks y'all don't give a schitt.

NewportBarGuy: Since when was it the mission of the U.S. government to invest in risky home loans?

Risky loans? No, FHA loans aren't sub prime. They are fixed rate. And the FHA has been in the loan business for decades.

Further, you are missing one crucial point. FHA loans also include mortgage insurance that the homeowner pays, whose sole purpose is to give the lender extra cash in case the property is foreclosed.

Efficient markets at work. Yet, you advocate a governmental intrusion into the market to keep prices artificially high. Why is that?

For the same reason Greenspan says we don't have a true free market economy. If you want a true free market, be prepared for much harder landings and deeper recessions. But allowing some to refinance (not all sub primers, only those who have the money to get into fixed rates they can pay) is a better overall plan to help prevent a hard fall.

Hideously Gigantic Smurf: Funny how when it's 400 billion to kill brown folks y'all don't give a schitt.

really, you have to hate
one idea or the other.
nobody can penetrate bipartisan
politics.
all you can do is
understand it, kiss your money goodbye, and
listen to whatever side makes your tingly parts happy.

If they are going to help those with mortages, help everyone with a mortage. Don't pass something that only benefits the stupid.

This is what we get when we start moving toward the wonderful utopia of totally free markets. And yet people still want to head down that road.

So this means I am not getting a tax refund.

Guntram Shatterhand: And more people will buy into the system with the false belief that the market is back up, smart people will get out quickly to save their own asses, people like myself will avoid buying homes because the risk and the money is not worth the dream of home ownership, and the system will crash and my meager taxes might pay someone to type up a paper telling someone else how much the interest from this whole circus will eventually cost us.

At this farking point, why not just buy every farking American a house and just cut out the corporations? Seriously. We're blowing billions on useless shiat, so why not just stop the bullshiat and buy us all a house. Easiest farking solution ever.

I would like the government to buy me two houses. One for my shirts, the other for my nasty poo-poo undies.

/Actually, one for me, and one for all my stuff.
/Don't touch my stuff.

In case anyone's interested, this is about shoring up the banking system. Also it benefits people who CAN pay their morgage as well, by shoring úp the price of ALL houses.

If you want to find waste, look at the military budget.

Befuddled:
This is what we get when we start moving toward the wonderful utopia of totally free markets. And yet people still want to head down that road.

This is the opposite of free market behavior. A free market would never include government bailouts.

ohh don't worry whiny "conservatives" this money may appear to be helping the little guy, but it is actually going to help big corporate lenders from acquiring thousands upon thousands of foreclosed homes. Now doesn't that warm your little hearts?