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The Obama admin wants you to know they’re here to help with mortgage payments
Hotair ^ | 12/12/2012 | Erika Johnsen

Posted on 12/12/2012 10:21:40 AM PST by SeekAndFind

The Obama administration is launching a brand-new public service announcement to tout Treasury and Housing & Urban Development‘s joint initiative to help progress "the Obama Administration's broad strategy to help homeowners avoid foreclosure, stabilize the country's housing market, and improve the nation's economy." Via Politico:

CLICK ABOVE LINK FOR THE VIDEO...

“While communities across the country are beginning to recover from an unprecedented housing crisis, too many families are still struggling with their mortgage payments and are unsure of where to turn for help,” said Treasury undersecretary for domestic finance Mary Miller in a statement. “Millions of homeowners have gotten help to avoid foreclosure since 2009. We want to make sure struggling homeowners know today that there are free government resources available to help homeowners avoid foreclosure.” …

The ad emphasizes an Obama administration housing initiative called the Making Home Affordable Program that allows homeowners a way to lower their monthly payments, avoid foreclosure or temporarily suspend their mortgage payments.

“Making home affordable is a free government program.” Is that a huge, glaring red flag for anybody else? I realize that these are tough times and there are many people undergoing real material hardship, but remember what happened when decades of the federal government’s meddling in the housing market came to a head, just a few years ago? I believe we call that little ol’ occurrence, the financial meltdown. The feds’ housing-policy apparatuses are already in dire straits, and as much as Obama just loves to talk about ‘not going back to the same policies that got us here in the first place,’ he is remarkably committed to furthering the government’s self-imposed role in providing politically-edged financial services that the private sector is much better at administering.

But that is not the whole story. Chapter 2 of the story is the “affordable housing” policies going back many years, spawned by liberals and progressives. These increasingly extreme and unbalanced policies began the housing bubble even before the Fed’s miscalculations starting in 2001. Moreover, because of these affordable housing policies, when the bubble burst, and housing prices stopped rising and started deep declines, the resulting damage was far worse. …

The big problem wasn’t caused just by loans to low income borrowers. The problem was that once lending standards were trashed for these borrowers, they couldn’t be maintained for more creditworthy borrowers. This let more well-heeled speculators in on the scam, now able to qualify for highly speculative mortgages they could not have qualified for previously. That vastly expanded the resulting credit risk vulnerabilities for the financial system, and vastly pumped up the housing bubble far more.



TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Front Page News; Government
KEYWORDS: mortgage; obama
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1 posted on 12/12/2012 10:21:45 AM PST by SeekAndFind
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To: SeekAndFind

Just another income redistribution scheme.


2 posted on 12/12/2012 10:24:08 AM PST by I want the USA back
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To: I want the USA back

They’ve got the ball, they’re on offense, and they’re driving.

We are going to experience losses of people around the edges of the Conservative movement as they look and see that the country has gone center-left Socialist, and likely will remain that way for some time. Some will decide they can’t beat ‘em so why not join ‘em. Can’t be so bad to have the government “help”, can it?


3 posted on 12/12/2012 10:26:32 AM PST by Buckeye McFrog
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To: SeekAndFind
OBAMASUGARDADDY,OBAMASUGARDADDY
4 posted on 12/12/2012 10:26:37 AM PST by FrankR (They will become our ultimate masters the day we surrender the 2nd Amendment.)
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To: I want the USA back

The nine most terrifying words in the English language are, ‘I’m from the government and I’m here to help.’

— Ronald Reagan 40th president of US (1911 - 2004)


5 posted on 12/12/2012 10:27:19 AM PST by SeekAndFind
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To: SeekAndFind

Hey obama - I have 3 years to go and I don’t want any of your crap to screw things up! Shut up and go crawl under a rock someplace ...


6 posted on 12/12/2012 10:27:52 AM PST by Ken522
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To: I want the USA back

Barry is working hard at running out of other peoples money. Only question I’ve got is how long it will take.


7 posted on 12/12/2012 10:31:30 AM PST by Made In The USA (I'm not yelling, just... just talking enthusiastically..)
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To: All

Obama’s winning 2012 campaign slogan: “The world owes you a living. Elect Obama to make sure US taxpayers pay for it.”

“The world owes you a living...no matter how lazy, dumb, slovenly, drunk, drug-addicted...no matter how many convictions for distribution/possesion, armed robbery, domestic violence, murder and mayhem, no matter how many screwups, jobs lost, kids abandoned.”


8 posted on 12/12/2012 10:32:09 AM PST by Liz ("Come quickly, I'm tasting the stars," Dom Perignon)
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To: SeekAndFind

if America survives all this subversion of our economy it will be a Divine miracle


9 posted on 12/12/2012 10:32:15 AM PST by faithhopecharity (--)
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To: All
BTW, lead counsel in two of the "sub-prime mtge lending standard lawsuits"----none other than Barack HObama representing the arch criminal organization, ACORN.

HERE'S HOW THE SAP-HAPPY CRIMINAL LIBERAL MIND WORKS HObama sued lenders to force them to give out toxic loans, and now, as President, he is suing them for complying, and actually lending the money.

=============================================

FYI---under the new HObam'ed "non-existent mtge standards," lenders could no longer turn down a loan from someone who received welfare, unemployment compensation, child support as their "primary income." One couple receiving only SSI---applied for a mtge w/ a fraudulent app prepared by a greedy latino realty agent.

==================================================

REFERENCE Clinton appointee Andrew Cuomo's Social Engineering as HUD Chief Contributed to Subprime Crisis / originally published on Examiner.com

New Yorkers voted Andrew Cuomo as governor---but Cuomo's gargantuan political ambitions know no bounds.

As Americans continue to struggle with the loss of their homes, savings and retirement resources, thieving/opportunistic politicans that were complicit in deregulating govt sponsored enterprises (GSEs) in the secondary market----namely Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac---that caused the subprime loan bomb to detonate---are still jockeying for power.

BACKSTORY In 1993 President Bill Clinton appointed Andrew Cuomo to the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) as Assistant Secretary.In 1997 Cuomo took over as HUD chief replacing Clinton appointee Henry Cisneros. Latino Cisneros tenure championed Clinton's goal of social engineering via the housing market forcing lenders to issue loans to those that would not financially qualify for standard-laden lending.

Cisneros left office in a scandal involving lying to the FBI over payouts to a mistress, Cisneros subsequently pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor and though never sent to prison received a pardon from Bill Clinton in 2001.

Andrew Cuomo took the HUD reins and not only furthered Cisneros and Clinton's policies but greatly expanded them.

Henry Cisneros moved the GSEs toward a requirement that 42 percent of their mortgages serve low and moderate income families. Andrew Cuomo raised that number to 50 percent and dramatically hiked GSE mandates to buy mortgages for the "very- low-income."

These bad loans were purchased and sold throughout the secondary market and the pyramid grew and the bottom collapsed resulting in the subprime crisis we are still reeling from today.c

In 2008, the Village Voice published a compelling report detailing Andrew Cuomo's policy decisions "that gave birth to the country's current crisis."

The report touched on how Cuomo's 187-page rules "opened the door to abuse." The rules explicitly rejected the idea of imposing any new reporting requirements on the GSEs. In other words, HUD wanted Fannie and Freddie to buy risky loans, but the department didn't want to hear just how risky they were.

Many New York voters are failing to see the actual harm to the minority community directly caused by Cuomo's policies...matter.

Cuomo's top HUD aide said, "We believe that there are a lot of loans to black Americans that could be safely purchased by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac if these companies were more flexible."

Andrew Cuomo doubled down and had this to say about his HUD standards, "GSE presence in the subprime market could be of significant benefit to lower-income families, minorities, and families living in underserved areas."

How's that working out for the minority community, where foreclosures and unemployment rates have hit the hardest as a result of such failed policies and blatant social engineering?

======================================

2012 Obama talked a lot about the economy, but said only things that make him look good. The whoppers kept on coming-—seeking reelection he said taxpayers got back every dime used for TARP to rescue the financial system, and that he also passed a “historic law” to end taxpayer-funded Wall Street bailouts for good. He kept forgetting to say US taxpayers are still owed big bucks for the billion dollar bailout of the financial industry. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac together owe taxpayers over $140 billion.

10 posted on 12/12/2012 10:42:47 AM PST by Liz ("Come quickly, I'm tasting the stars," Dom Perignon)
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To: All
GENESIS OF THE F/M BILKING--- Clinton appointee. Fannie Mae CEO Franklin Raines' Letter to Shareholders--excerpted from 2003 Fannie Mae Annual Report

Excerpt ...Ten years ago the typical conforming mortgage required a down payment of 10-20%, and low-down payment mortgages were considered too risky. But then we helped to standardize the 3-5% down payment loan, brought it to global capital markets, and made it available to lenders and communities nationwide. Now low-down payment loans are commonplace. And we just adopted a new variance in our underwriting standards that will make the $500 down payment loan widely available as well...

In 1994, we pledged to provide $1 trillion in capital to ten million underserved families by the end of 2000. Thanks to our housing and industry partners, we met that goal early.

Then in 2000, we launched our American Dream Commitment, a pledge to provide $2 trillion in capital to 18 million underserved families by the year 2010, including $400 billion targeted specifically for minority families (later raised to $700 billion in response to President Bush’s Minority Homeownership Initiative). After four of the strongest years in housing and mortgage finance history, we’ve already surpassed the top-line goals of this commitment. But our work is far from complete.

So in January 2004, we announced our Expanded American Dream Commitment and pledged significant new resources to tackle America’s toughest housing challenges. Our new commitment has three main goals.

First, we will expand access to homeownership for six million first-time home buyers in the next ten years, including 1.8 million minority first-time home buyers.We also will help raise the national minority homeownership rate from 49 percent to 55 percent, with the ultimate goal of closing it entirely.

Second, we will help new and long-term homeowners stay in their homes through a series of initiatives, and commit $15 billion to preserve affordable rental housing and $1.5 billion to support the revitalization of public housing communities.

Third, we will increase the supply of affordable housing and support community development activities in at least 1,000 neighborhoods across the country through our American Communities Fund, and through targeted investments like Low-Income Housing Tax Credits that help finance affordable rental housing.

It is because of initiatives like our Trillion Dollar Commitment and our American Dream Commitment that we have exceeded our HUD affordable housing goals for ten consecutive years. (End Raines excerpt.)

=========================================================

FANNIE-MAE--THE DEMOCRATS' CRIMINAL ENTERPRISE / By Michelle Malkin

Fannie/Freddie are centerpieces of the criminal enterprise called the Democrat Party-—where Dem cronies and collaborators loot the organization, get cushy jobs, bonuses, and the like.

Fannie Mae’s political machine dispensed campaign contributions, gave jobs to friends and relatives of legislators, hired armies of lobbyists (even paying lobbyists not to lobby against it), paid academics who wrote papers validating the home ownership mania, and spread “charitable” contributions to housing advocates across the congressional map.

Fannie Mae serves as an industrial-sized patronage factory — sharing profits with political allies, spreading taxpayer funds to voting blocs——like ethnic groups-——and doling out jobsto left-wing academics, Washington has-beens and back-scratching buddies.

Obama insider Fannie Mae exec Jim Johnson got sweetheart loans from shady subprime Countrywide. Pols raked in six-figure salaries as F/F engaged in Enron-style accounting, plunged into debt and helped usher in the subprime housing meltdown through cockamamie lending practices.

Bill Clinton appointed Franklin Raines, Daley and Rahm Emanuel just as the quasi-governmental F/M engaged in rampant book-cooking so that F/M insider could help themselves to massive bonuses.

The Chi/Tribune exposed how political whore Rahm Emanuel’s “profitable stint” was low-show w/ no work involved. Emanuel was not even assigned to committees, according to company proxy statements. Immediately upon joining the board, Emanuel and other insiders qualified for $380,000 in stock and options plus a $20,000 annual fee, public records indicate. W/ Wall Street Rahm Emanuel at F/M, accounting tricks were used to mislead shareholders about outsize profits F/M reaped from risky investments.

The goal was to cook the books to keep fraudulent earnings on the books, to make Freddie Mac look profitable on paper-——AND to fraudulently obtain humongous annual bonuses for political insiders.

11 posted on 12/12/2012 10:44:28 AM PST by Liz ("Come quickly, I'm tasting the stars," Dom Perignon)
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To: faithhopecharity
"if America survives all this subversion of our economy it will be a Divine miracle"

A miracle indeed.
All my life I heard "Money doesn't grow on trees"
How wrong I was to believe that lie.
All you need is a community organizer with a GOVT checkbook. . . . . . . .

12 posted on 12/12/2012 10:46:25 AM PST by DeaconRed (December 7, 1941. We overcame that with much hard work. We can overcome November 6, 2012.)
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To: All
Mexican illegals' wily plans to profit off America----were shattered along with massive mortgage foreclosures, via the 2007 housing bust in Latino-dominated states like California, Nevada, Arizona and Florida.

Latinos calculated they'd make thousands of dollars as housing prices inevitably rose. Instead, they collapsed---some one-third of those foreclosed on were Latinos.

Subprime mortgages were granted, with encouragement from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, to Latinos unqualified by traditional credit standards lenders established for nonn-Mexican borrowers.

Keep in mind----the sub-prime mtge story is ultimately about “criminal” behavior that has eluded prosecution.

==============================================

TIME TO NAIL THE CONGRESSMAN WHO COLLUDED IN THE BILLION DOLLAR SUB-PRIME DEBACLEThe Congressional Hispanic Institute, Inc, is an entity organized by Cong Joe Baca (D-Cali) in his capacity as head of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus.

Cong Baca created "HOGAR" (Spanish for home) in 2003 to work with the mortgage industry, lender and banks and latino community groups to increase mortgage lending to what savvy observers considered to be unqualified Latinos.

"HOGAR" colluded w/ Cong Baca in what was to become a massive bilking of taxpayers. Cong Baca calculatedly hyped the fact that the national Latino homeownership rate was 47%, compared with 68% for the overall population.

HOGAR was coached to call the figure "alarming," and to say "a concerted effort was required to ensure that by the end of the decade Latinos will share equally in the American Dream of home ownership."

HOGAR and Cong Baca conned the public, failing to note that most of the "dreamers" were illegals, citizens of Third World countries who had violated US borders.

Predictably, HOGAR colluded w/ co-conspirators which included:

(a) shaky mortgage companies that ran into big trouble;

(b) Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, both now under federal control after billions in taxpayer bailouts;

(c) Countrywide Financial Corp., sold to Bank of America Corp;

(d) Washington Mutual Inc., taken over by the US government and sold to J.P. Morgan Chase & Co.; and,

(e) New Century Financial Corp. and Ameriquest Mortgage Corp, both now defunct, killed by defaulted subprime Latino mortgages.

HOGAR's ties to the subprime mortgage industry were substantial. Bribery and self-dealing were rampant:

<><> Companies that donated $150,000 to Cong Baca got the right to have their own research fellow who would conduct fraudulent studies, which were cunningly used by industry lobbyists to pump lending.

<><> Bribery and extortion in the form of $100,000 annual donations to Cong Baca, for which HOGAR provided phony news releases from Cong Baca's Hispanic Caucus promoting a lender's commercial products to the Latino market,

<><> The most shocking example of bribery well-substantitated by Hogar's literature..... HOGAR announced it worked with Freddie Mac on a self-serving two-year examination of Latino homeownership in 63 congressional districts.

The "study" found Hispanic ownership on the rise thanks to "new flexible mortgage loan products" that the industry was adopting at the urging of Cong Baca's collusive coterie.

<><> HOGAR conned lenders into even more lenient down-payment and underwriting standards.

<><> As the subprime debacle unfolded, HOGAR declined repeated requests for comment despite the economic havoc their activities precipitated.

The mortgage schemes demonstrated the criminal activities of border violators with multiple identities---perhaps violent, terrorist-connected foreigners---colluding and conspiring to defraud private companies and public entities. And mortgage racketeering enterprises which employed sub rosa finance and business practices to carry out deceptions and frauds.

The alleged ring of swindlers---a Congresman, individuals with multiple identities, banks, insurance companies, mortgage nrokers--might be charged with cheating the US govt, taxpayers and bank share holders out of hundreds of millions of dollars via an elaborate web of mortgage and bank frauds.

The mortgage Dreamers used multiple phony identities, fraudulent Social Security numbers, purchased from identity forgers in order to obtain govt-subsidized benefits.

L/E will find that individuals with multiple identities obtained fraudulent mortgages then flipped the houses at ever-higher prices to family member who then absconded to foreign countries, sticking banks (and taxpayers) with hundreds of millions in fraudulent mortgages.

BACKGROUND A Wall Street Journal investigative report related that, according to the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council examination of the borrowing spree, uncovered financial schemes by low-income housing groups, Hispanic lawmakers, a congressional Hispanic housing initiative, mortgage lenders and brokers, all colluding in fraduent schemes to increase homeownership among Latinos with forged documents which enabled massive fraud.

This was not simply the mortgage market at work. It was fueled by avarice, greed, and Congressional enabling fraudulent practices. In 2005 alone, mortgages to Hispanics jumped by 29%; Latinos with multiple fraudulent identities in low-paying jobs obtained subprime mortgages for prime properties---soaring to 169%.

(Research provided by Wall Street Journal. Some material excerpted from the NY Times.

13 posted on 12/12/2012 10:47:22 AM PST by Liz ("Come quickly, I'm tasting the stars," Dom Perignon)
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To: SeekAndFind

“there are free government resources available”

Free? Hardly, it is born by those evil rich taxpayers and those that are dutifully living by their mortgage contracts. I am only a few short days from making my final payment!


14 posted on 12/12/2012 10:54:38 AM PST by CSM (Keeper of the Dave Ramsey Ping list. FReepmail me if you want your beeber stuned.)
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To: Ken522
Hey obama - I have 3 years to go and I don’t want any of your crap to screw things up! Shut up and go crawl under a rock someplace ...

I hear you Ken.

My wife and I just PAID OFF our mortgage this year...never missed a payment...never needed or asked for any kind of Gov't assist or handout. I sure as hell don't want my hard earned (over)taxed dollars to be used to help pay off someone else's mortgage.

The words I would like to type here to express my utter loathing of the $%@^& infesting the White house would get me banned from this site for life...

15 posted on 12/12/2012 10:55:06 AM PST by Rivendell ("Stupidity is also a gift of God, but one mustn't misuse it " - Pope John Paul II 1920 -- 2005)
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To: Rivendell

The way I know when Obama is on a tear with mortgages is when all the headhunters call me about jobs at Wells Fargo.


16 posted on 12/12/2012 10:58:35 AM PST by EQAndyBuzz (You cant bring something to its knees that refuses to stand on its own)
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To: SeekAndFind
Making Home Affordable Program

I've been participating in such a program for years. It's simple: I have never bought a home I couldn't afford.
17 posted on 12/12/2012 11:06:05 AM PST by rightwingintelligentsia (Be careful of believing something just because you want it to be true.)
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To: rightwingintelligentsia

Yes, I could have bought a MUCH nicer house, if I had bought one that I could not afford.


18 posted on 12/12/2012 11:10:07 AM PST by NEMDF
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To: SeekAndFind
For every dollar that the govt hands out to some person who had the poor judgment to spend money on other lifestyle related things other than housing or foolishly bought more house than he/she could afford, someone else who showed good judgment is going to be short at least a dollar in maintaining his lifestyle and paying for his housing. So like all welfare programs it rewards laziness and poor life choices while simultaneously punishing hard work and intelligent life choices.
19 posted on 12/12/2012 11:18:39 AM PST by from occupied ga (Your government is your most dangerous enemy)
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To: Made In The USA

already has. That is why Timmy is just printing more.


20 posted on 12/12/2012 11:57:42 AM PST by cableguymn (The founding fathers would be shooting by now..)
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