In light of the economic crisis and the collapse of dreams for millions of Americans, it is worth looking back at the "Ownership Society" that helped trigger the housing boom, then bust. This is along the same lines as President Obama's State of the Union speech, last night (through which House Speaker John Boehner looked like he had eaten a frog. Note to Boehner: do you really think that helps your cause). Obama began with a recitation of the mistakes made by powerful Washington officials and Wall Street financiers who are now trying to make hay with the "politics of envy".
President Obama did not linger on the history, but voters might. In the spirit of accuracy, here is a speech delivered on "The Ownership Society" by President Bush on June 18, 2002 and still available on the HUD website. Reading it today, reminds of the barb by Groucho Marx who was a comedian not a pundit, "Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly, and applying the wrong remedies."
The applause lines in the speech are clear. The Bush administration responded to 9/11 by stimulating housing markets and wealthy homebuilders who had propelled both Bushes, respectively to the Governor's Mansion and White House. You will have to read the whole of it to get to the part where he talks about our response to "evil" and connect the dots to lowered interest rates and thresholds to building and construction. That's where the Latin Builders Association directors and lobbyists came in, swinging at the piƱata.
When Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich lunch with the LBA today (called "mighty" by this morning's Miami Herald but more on the order of "fallen".) an question for enterprising reporters: what was the role of the LBA and its and bankers like the US Century Bank board of directors including Ramon Rasco and Sergio Pino, and Jeb Bush for that matter; lobbying then HUD Secretary Bob Martinez for housing policies that ran the economy into the deepest ditch since the Great Depression?
(Miami New Times should make its life mission, to uncover the details.) So here is the grand plan from the Bush speech:
"... The problem is we have what we call a homeownership gap in America. Three-quarters of Anglos own their homes, and yet less than 50 percent of African Americans and Hispanics own homes. That ownership gap signals that something might be wrong in the land of plenty. And we need to do something about it.
We are here in Washington, D.C. to address problems. So I've set this goal for the country. We want 5.5 million more homeowners by 2010 -- million more minority homeowners by 2010. (Applause.) Five-and-a-half million families by 2010 will own a home. That is our goal. It is a realistic goal. But it's going to mean we're going to have to work hard to achieve the goal, all of us. And by all of us, I mean not only the federal government, but the private sector, as well.
And so I want to, one, encourage you to do everything you can to work in a realistic, smart way to get this done. I repeat, we're here for a reason. And part of the reason is to make this dream extend everywhere. I'm going to do my part by setting the goal, by reminding people of the goal, by heralding the goal, and by calling people into action, both the federal level, state level, local level, and in the private sector. (Applause.)
And so what are the barriers that we can deal with here in Washington? Well, probably the single barrier to first-time homeownership is high down payments. People take a look at the down payment, they say that's too high, I'm not buying. They may have the desire to buy, but they don't have the wherewithal to handle the down payment. We can deal with that. And so I've asked Congress to fully fund an American Dream down payment fund which will help a low-income family to qualify to buy, to buy. (Applause.)
We believe when this fund is fully funded and properly administered, which it will be under the Bush administration, that over 40,000 families a year -- 40,000 families a year -- will be able to realize the dream we want them to be able to realize, and that's owning their own home. (Applause.)
The second barrier to ownership is the lack of affordable housing. There are neighborhoods in America where you just can't find a house that's affordable to purchase, and we need to deal with that problem. The best way to do so, I think, is to set up a single family affordable housing tax credit to the tune of $2.4 billion over the next five years to encourage affordable single family housing in inner-city America. (Applause.)
The third problem is the fact that the rules are too complex. People get discouraged by the fine print on the contracts. They take a look and say, well, I'm not so sure I want to sign this. There's too many words. (Laughter.) There's too many pitfalls. So one of the things that the Secretary is going to do is he's going to simplify the closing documents and all the documents that have to deal with homeownership.
It is essential that we make it easier for people to buy a home, not harder. And in order to do so, we've got to educate folks. Some of us take homeownership for granted, but there are people -- obviously, the home purchase is a significant, significant decision by our fellow Americans. We've got people who have newly arrived to our country, don't know the customs. We've got people in certain neighborhoods that just aren't really sure what it means to buy a home. And it seems like to us that it makes sense to have a outreach program, an education program that explains the whys and wherefores of buying a house, to make it easier for people to not only understand the legal implications and ramifications, but to make it easier to understand how to get a good loan.
There's some people out there that can fall prey to unscrupulous lenders, and we have an obligation to educate and to use our resource base to help people understand how to purchase a home and what -- where the good opportunities might exist for home purchasing.
Finally, we want to make sure the Section 8 homeownership program is fully implemented. This is a program that provides vouchers for first-time home buyers which they can use for down payments and/or mortgage payments. (Applause.)
So this is an ambitious start here at the federal level. And, again, I repeat, you all need to help us every way you can. But the private sector needs to help, too. They need to help, too. Of course, it's in their interest. If you're a realtor, it's in your interest that somebody be interested in buying a home. If you're a homebuilder, it's in your interest that somebody be interested in buying a home.
And so, therefore, I've called -- yesterday, I called upon the private sector to help us and help the home buyers. We need more capital in the private markets for first-time, low-income buyers. And I'm proud to report that Fannie Mae has heard the call and, as I understand, it's about $440 billion over a period of time. They've used their influence to create that much capital available for the type of home buyer we're talking about here. It's in their charter; it now needs to be implemented. Freddie Mac is interested in helping. I appreciate both of those agencies providing the underpinnings of good capital.
There's a lot of faith-based programs that want to be involved with educating people about how to buy a home. And we're going to have an active outreach from HUD. (Applause.)
And so this ambitious goal is going to be met. I believe it will be, just so long as we keep focused, and remember that security at home is -- economic security at home is just an important part of -- as homeland security. And owning a home is part of that economic security. It's also a part of making sure that this country fulfills its great hope and vision.
See, I tell people -- and I believe this -- that out of the evil done to America will come some incredible good. (Applause.) You know, they thought they were attacking a country so weak and so feeble that we might file a lawsuit or two, and that's all we'd do. (Laughter.) That's what they thought. We're showing them the different face of America. We're showing them that we're plenty tough. When it comes to taking somebody trying to take away our freedoms, we're tough, and we're going to remain tough and steadfast. (Applause.)
But I also want people to see the deep compassion of America, as well. I want the world to see the other side of our character, which is the soft side, the decent side, the loving side. I want people to know that when we talk about dreams, we mean big dreams. And when we talk about a free society, we want a society in which every citizen has the chance to advance, not just a few.
And part of the cornerstone of America is the ability for somebody, regardless of where they're from, regardless of where they were born, to say, this is my home; I own this home, it is my piece of property, it is my part of the American experience. It is essential that we stay focused on the goal, and work hard to achieve that goal. And when it's all said and done, we can look back and say, because of my work, because of our collective work, America is a better place. Out of evil came incredible good.
Thank you all for coming by."
7 comments:
Republicans don't want to be reminded of history unless it's the one they revise.
The LBA will never fess up to their roles but boy would that make entertaining reading. Any moles out there?
You may write all day and you still would not mention all the important issues Obama conspicuously left out from his dawdling speech. Couldn’t he find anything positive to say about all the great things he had done in his three years?
He miraculously forgot about his brave stimulus plan. And how about Obamacare? Conveniently forgot about the Keystone pipeline with it’s up to 200,000 jobs too, huh? Oh yes, Forgot about Sylindra too, didn’t he? And how could he forget the rise of the debt ceiling on his watch. How about his lavish personal spending? You know, the pricy Halloween party and such?
What about Michelle going to work at a soup kitchen in $500.00 tennis shoes? Wouldn’t you say that was a bit much?
It is incredible how selective memory can invade the brains of you Crats on Que.
You are good writer, but you should try to tell the truth sometimes or, at least include the whole story. Leaving important information out of your posts because of your overt political bias does not make you look good. Whether you like it or not, both Republicans and Democrats read and contribute to this blog. Your playing to one party by following your hero Obama in trying to divide and conquer will not work here. It is bait that we Republicans will not bite.
It is small minded to forget that it will take both political parties to fix our country’s ills and Obama’s continued rhetoric to make war between the parties does not represent leadership. Rather it represents a divide and conquer mentality which never works in any situation. He should try to be the President of the entire country and once in a while tell the truth because the lack of leadership in his administration cannot be hidden.
To anon above: Keystone is going to get built, but on a different route. And if you'd like to wager on exactly how many jobs that will create, for Americans, I'll bet you 10.00 (I'm nowhere near as rich as Romney ) it's a fraction of 200,000. Are you a shill for Keystone? Obama did mention Solyndra in his speech and he also mentioned healthcare reform...as the first poster stated, Republicans love to revise history, even history that's not yet 24hours old..
The Keystone Jobs have magically multiplied by 10! It's an f'in miracle. I have live in a town with those "big" jobs. Sure, while the grain elevator and the coal terminal got built. the town was filled with construction workers (who, by the way, were living away from their homes while working). But what happened when these things got built? Operations were run by a minimal amount of people. Computerized operations have long ago replaced manpower. And the workers all went home with dreams of the "next big job" that would once again take them away from their homes and families. Profits will continue, but only for the gas investors.
Is our environment really worth risking for a year or two of construction? We want real jobs. We want jobs that last for our lifetimes. We are tired of the quick fixes that the republicans offer.
BTW, when are one of you going to do a write up on the Matheson Boat Storage Issue?
The State of the Uniion address last night was pretty good, but the ideals were similar to those of the first Repulicans. So, I go to the right, I go to the left and still manage to end up in the middle.
You guys should investigate Ocean Bank, which was heavily involved in the RE bubble here in Florida, much more than US Century. Check out this story about former EVP of Lending Danilo Perez, who has plead guilty to bribery. It just came out in the Wall Street Journal. Stories are out in the South Florida Business Journal and the Miami Herald too.
http://blogs.wsj.com/corruption-currents/2012/01/25/former-ocean-bank-exec-pleads-guilty-to-bribery-scheme/
I will say that former President Jose Concepcion is even more corrupt than Perez. Indeed, according to the plea deal, Concepcion signed off on one of the checks to Perez, his long time crony within the bank. Check out one of the checks in 2007 designated "JC". The rats are finally fleeing this sinking ship.
US Century is likewise a mess too, and it will all come out once the regs shut it down.
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