Obama to bypass Congress on housing (will announce a series of executive actions on housing)

Hotair ^ | 10/24/2011 | Ed Morrissey

[SeekAndFind]

Barack Obama wants to pose as a man of action on the economy, the New York Times reports today, and so he will announce a series of executive actions on housing and education. Obama hopes that these actions will contrast himself with Congress, where even Democrats have balked at passing his American Jobs Act either in whole or piecemeal:

With his jobs plan stymied in Congress by Republican opposition, President Obama on Monday will begin a series of executive-branch actions to confront housing, education and other economic problems over the coming months, heralded by a new mantra: “We can’t wait” for lawmakers to act.

According to an administration official, Mr. Obama will kick off his new offensive in Las Vegas, ground zero of the housing bust, by promoting new rules for federally guaranteed mortgages so that more homeowners, those with little or no equity in their homes, can refinance and avert foreclosure.

And Wednesday in Denver, the official said, Mr. Obama will announce policy changes to ease college graduates’ repayment of federal loans, seeking to alleviate the financial concerns of students considering college at a time when states are raising tuition.

Will restructuring student-loan debt really help the economy? It sounds more like a ploy to pander to the Occupy Movement, which in its occasionally coherent moments demands free higher education and complete forgiveness of tuition debt. States are raising tuitions, though, in response to demand created by cheap student loans, which Obama proposes to make even cheaper.

The efforts on housing and mortgage restructuring come curiously at the same moment when the Washington Post issued a blistering report on Obama’s failures in this area:

Obama has spent just $2.4 billion of the $50 billion he promised. The initiatives he announced have helped 1.7 million people. Housing prices remain near a crisis low. Millions of people are deeply indebted, owing more than their properties are worth, and many have lost their homes to foreclosure or are likely to do so. Economists increasingly say that, as a result, Americans are too scared to spend money, depriving the economy of its traditional engine of growth.

The Obama effort fell short in part because the president and his senior advisers, after a series of internal debates, decided against more dramatic actions to help homeowners, worried that they would pose risks for taxpayers and the economy, according to numerous current and former officials. They consistently unveiled programs that underperformed, did little to reduce mortgage debts owed by ordinary Americans and rejected a get-tough approach with banks. …

Obama promised to spend $50 billion to $100 billion of the $350 billion remaining in the Troubled Assets Relief Program, or TARP — the giant pool of money that had been used to bail out banks in the months before he came to office — to provide aid to homeowners: Main Street, not Wall Street.

Obama’s top advisers faced difficult questions about how to spend the money. None favored using taxpayer money simply to wipe out all the bad debt. That would have required one of two things: handing out up to $700 billion to more than 10 million Americans so they could pay off part of their loans, or asking Congress to force banks, which had just narrowly escaped collapse, to tell borrowers they did not have to pay back their whole debt, which would lead to more financial losses for the firms.

Instead, Obama went with HAMP and HARP, which has nibbled at the edges of the problem for the last three years — and haven’t even spent 10% of the money Congress authorized, let alone the full $50 billion. Now Obama wants to claim that he will use his executive authority to act where Congress won’t, but clearly Congress hasn’t been the problem here. They authorized tens of billions of dollars that Obama requested in early 2009, but the administration has incompetently bungled those programs with little to show for it.

Will Obama’s new proposals do the trick? James Pethokoukis says it’s basically more of the same:

If that analysis is accurate, this housing relief effort by the Obama White House won’t accomplish more than previous attempts. Back in early 2009, Obama promised to help “as many as 3 to 4 million homeowners to modify the terms of their mortgages to avoid foreclosure.” But just 816,000 homeowners have received permanent mortgage modification through federal housing programs.

That’s small potatoes. Tiny potatoes, really. According to CoreLogic, some 11 million, or nearly a quarter, of all residential properties are in negative equity. Another 2.4 million have less than five percent equity. More than 4 million mortgages are at least 90 days delinquent or in some stage of foreclosure, with another 3.4 million mortgages likely on their way during the next year, according to some analysts.

Sure, any little bits helps. But it’s hard not to conclude that this meager plan is little more than an effort in political theater, a campaign-season sop to worried middle-class voters and the Occupy Wall Street movement. Given the small scope of the housing plan, it’s likely that the student loan piece will be little more than a recycling a previous proposals. All in all, just enough to garner positive headlines but not so much as to scare taxpayers or bankers. Obama wants to be seen as compassionate yet fiscally responsible. A little bit OWS, a little bit Tea Party.

The real problem in the housing crisis isn’t mortgages, it’s unemployment. Even an underwater mortgage is still manageable as long as the debtor maintains an income level that affords the payments. Foreclosures don’t happen because of devaluation of property — they occur because payments don’t get made. Further, if homeowners have steady incomes, banks don’t need government interventions for refinancing and restructuring mortgages; they have plenty of motivation to perform those on their own.

Unfortunately, the same administration that couldn’t get out of its own way to spend the $50 billion they requested for the very purpose of alleviating underwater mortgages with federal guarantees also can’t get out of the way of economic expansion. The Obama administration’s rapid expansion of ambiguous and burdensome regulations has killed job creation in the US, which means that even a new HAMP/HARP program still won’t address the core problem of the economy and the housing markets. This is just political theater designed to distract from the cause by highlighting the chronic symptoms, even while the White House has proven inept at addressing even those symptoms.

[MrB]

Just stop pussyfootin’ around and say you’re gonna give free houses to preferred minorities.

[Logical me]

When will Congress and the House realize that King Obama is a dictator.

[Buckeye McFrog]

and so it begins...

[rockinqsranch]

“When will Congress and the House realize that King Obama is a dictator.”

Perhaps they do realize it, and that’s the reason they haven’t drawn up articles of impeachment.

[silverleaf]

and we thought Peggy Joseph was nuts

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P36x8rTb3jI

[DJ MacWoW]

Not Supporting FR?

Click The Marxist To Donate

"The fact that we are here today to debate raising America's debt limit is a sign of leadership failure. It is a sign that the US Government cannot pay its own bills. It is a sign that we now depend on ongoing financial assistance from foreign countries to finance our Government's reckless fiscal policies. Increasing America's debt weakens us domestically and internationally. Leadership means that, the buck stops here. Instead, Washington is shifting the burden of bad choices today onto the backs of our children and grandchildren. America has a debt problem and a failure of leadership. Americans deserve better."

~ Senator Barack H. Obama, March 2006

[ken21]

when does the u.s. congress and the courts curtail obama’s executive excesses?

[kcvl]

the government is waiving certain so-called reps and warranties for lenders that made it more financially risky to take on more home loans.

Edward J. DeMarco, acting director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, said it was difficult to say how many more borrowers would refinance under the new rules, which will be issued Nov. 15. He told reporters on a conference call that it would depend in part on interest rates and the individual circumstances of borrowers.

Through the end of August, almost 900,000 homeowners with loans owned or backed by Fannie or Freddie have refinanced through the program. The administration, however, had hoped the program would help several million borrowers.

Even with the new rules, only borrowers with mortgages taken on by Fannie and Freddie on or before May 31, 2009, can qualify. Their loan amounts must top 80% of the current market value of their homes. And they must be current on their payments, with no late payment in the last six months and no more than one late payment in the last 12 months.

That means the program provides no help for the 3.5 million or so homeowners who are seriously delinquent on their loans or in default.

The administration is also working on a program to convert empty homes into rental properties, and it has sought to give temporary reprieves to certain borrowers who lose their jobs.

http://tinyurl.com/66ktzjd

[BitWielder1]

The reason we have three branches of government is for balance and stability.

If one leg suddenly grows much longer than the others, guess what.

[ibytoohi]

Yeah, why do we need a congress anyway. They just get in the way of all that O wants to accomplish

[Bitsy]

When will Congress and the House realize that King Obama is a dictator.

This man needs to be jailed after leaving office - or before, if possible. He is an insult to every red blooded American. He and Soros share the same inflated ego and feelings of grandeur and some big time mental issues.

[ExCTCitizen]

Dear Mr President:

If you give me a free waterfront 7 bedroom, 6 bath mansion on 70 acres on the Outer Banks - along with free insurance and a 150 foot yacht - I might vote for you.

This is a new way of creating Democratic voters!!!

[pabianice]

"You got a problem with that?" -- as union thug pokes you in the chest

If we let the Kenyan do as he likes, we deserve it.

[Pride in the USA]

ping

[Gator113]

What in the hell is it going to take to stop this crazy bastard, NOW?

[Gatún(CraigIsaMangoTreeLawyer)]

“What in the hell is it going to take to stop this crazy bastard, NOW?”

When you folks living in the U.S. grow a spine.

[Cheerio]

hat in the hell is it going to take to stop this crazy bastard, NOW?

The GOP had two opportunities to "stop this crazy bastard" - the Continuing Resolution and the Debt Ceiling. What did they do? They could not wait to reach across the aisle and make a bargain. The GOP controls the House. The House controls the purse strings. Obamacare could have been defunded, EPA could have been defunded, Dodd Frank could have been defunded, NPR could have been defunded. Need I go on????

Kick the RINOS to the curb - they are worse than a "known" RAT member.

[bgill]

Why does Congress even show up to work? Why are we paying them? It’s not like they have a job anymore. It’s all about the All High and Mighty King of the Universe, the MEEEEEE, Myself, and I, Hussein the Usurper.

[Gator113]

“Kick the RINOS to the curb - they are worse than a “known” RAT member. “

I totally agree, but this won’t stop him “right now”.

I see it as similar to recognizing that you need a gun during gun battle and thinking that you will make it through this battle, save up and buy a gun.

It is insane that this isn’t being stopped by the GOP, BEFORE we can no longer bring this to a halt.