Did you watch the debates? What is wrong with John McCain? I’m still voting for him, but he’s out of his freaking mind.
At the last debate McCain brought up this new “plan” he has to solve the mortgage crisis. As if things weren’t bad enough already, it looks like he’s figured out a way to make it even worse.
Proud as a peacock, in response to the first question, he popped out his new plan. On the night he needed to draw blood – or make vacation plans for January 20th – the best John McCain could do was try to out-socialize Barack Obama. And that’s a pretty tall order, but John McCain managed to pull it off.
Here are the details. John McCain said that, if elected, he will have the government buy up all these troubled mortgages. Then he would have them renegotiated, lowering the amount of indebtedness to the current market value of the mortgaged properties. That would lower – probably dramatically – the amount owed and the interest rate paid.
Oh, and it would screw the country, which seems to be a pretty bipartisan objective.
Let’s think through what would happen if Insane Johnny got his way. First of all, American taxpayers would get totally reamed. Just a week after the liars promoting this bailout told us that the government would probably make money on it, by reselling the mortgages after they appreciated in value, my candidate decided to make it so that the government – by which I mean “the taxpayer” – would lose money on each and every mortgage.
Here’s how: If you buy it at a price that reflects the total amount owed, and then you reduce the total amount owed – and consequently the amount paid back – you lose money.
It’s that simple. The government absorbs the difference between what it buys the mortgage for and the price it then reissues the mortgage at – it just writes it off. It is an immediate and certain loss which will not be made up, no matter what happens to the market.
Look, you don’t buy a $10,000 car and then resell it for $8,000 and then expect to be happy about the deal, would you? (For those of you in Arkansas – that’s a $2,000 loss)
That’s Major Flaw No. 1.
Major Flaw No. 2 is that the plan rewards irresponsibility. If you were dumb, crooked or greedy enough to buy more house than you were willing or able to pay for, John McCain would save you by giving you the house at a price lower than what it cost when you moved in.
Say you live in a neighborhood where homes went for $300,000 two years ago when your neighbor, who delivers pizzas for a living, moved in. Surprise, surprise, he’s delinquent on his mortgage. And the economy is in the toilet, and the most you could get for a house in the neighborhood right now, if you had to sell, is $150,000.
Enter Nut Job Johnny.
He would take your bum neighbor, who is defaulting on a loan for $300,000, and save him from foreclosure. Further, he would reissue the loan for the current value of the property -- $150,000.
See where I’m going here? As you know, the mortgage payment on $150,000 is a whole lot less than the mortgage payment on $300,000. And, in the midst of a financial crisis, the interest rate is a whole lot lower.
So your punk neighbor is living in the same neighborhood and size house as you are, only he’s making a far smaller payment with a far smaller debt, all because of John McCain. And the fun part is that you, paying full price on your home, are going to be taxed to pay for your bone-head neighbor who can’t come up with the mortgage payments. In other words, those who make their mortgage payments will be taxed to pay for those who don’t.
And we don’t even want to get into how many of these defaulted-on homes were “bought” by illegal aliens or as part of social engineering programs intending to increase home ownership by the unemployed and welfare dependent. But I digress.
Nut job McCain will not only bail out these failed buyers; he will give them new mortgages at bargain-basement prices. What a deal!
But wait, there’s more.
What happens when the value of homes goes back up? Let’s say in five years, when the economy gets back on its feet, the homes in your neighborhood regain their value, and are selling for $300,000 again, what happens? Well, you – who kept your word and paid your mortgage – will sell yours for $300,000 and walk away even. And your neighbor, who defaulted and got the new mortgage at the bottomed-out price, will also sell for $300,000 and make $150,000 on the deal.
WOW! Thank you again, John McCain.
But wait, there’s still more.
There’s still Major Flaw No. 3.
And that is that anybody with half a brain – and no conscience – watched the debate and decided to stop paying their mortgage. Seriously, the value of your home right now, in most parts of the country, is less than what it was when you bought it – less than what it was when you took out your mortgage. So stop making your payments. Fall behind a little bit. Become a troubled mortgage. In a few months, the government will rescue you. And John McCain will give you a new mortgage, for the depressed value of your home. It’s like saving tens of thousands of dollars at the stroke of a pen. All you and McCain have to do is rip off the taxpayers. Apparently, he’s perfectly willing to do so.
Repeating for emphasis: People who paid their mortgages will labor under higher taxes and government debt. People who didn’t pay their mortgages will get a giant gift from the government. Responsible people will be punished and irresponsible people will be rewarded. The people who contribute to America get hosed and the people who tear down America get to raid the Treasury.
Thank you, John McCain.
As if the bailout con job wasn’t bad enough, Crazy Johnny found a way to make it worse.
But I’m still voting for him.
Here’s why: First of all, I'm a Republican. Other than that, the idiot who wants to give people welfare mortgages is a little bit better than the idiot who thinks health care is a right. One will tax me to give my lazy neighbor a house nicer than mine, and the other will tax me to pay for people who are so lazy they won’t even work to hire a doctor to take care of their families. It’s the lesser of two evils.
Would someone please answer this question: In a country of 300 million people, how in the heck did we end up with these two idiots as our presidential candidates?
