We hear it every day on the news – how we have to help bail out homeowners. How the housing market is in a shambles. ACORN is moving people back into their foreclosed homes illegally even though they may be actually owned by another person and not the bank. Sub-prime loans and A.R.M. balloon loans are at the basis for the ‘crisis’… but is it REALLY a crisis?

Not according to the numbers reported by the non-partisan Consumer Right’s League:

Over 68% of households are homeowners—a record. 35% own their home outright—meaning no mortgage payments. Only 5% of homeowners are “sub-prime” borrowers.

Only 1.7% of all mortgages are at risk of foreclosure. (Based on historical percentages, half of all foreclosure proceedings end up keeping their home, so only 0.85% will lose their home—a personal tragedy but not necessarily a national crisis.)

Just for the heck of it I looked at my local Bank of America ‘bank owned’ homes for sale and I wasn’t surprised by what I found – homes in some of the worst areas in the state were the majority up for sale (hmmmm I wonder how much of this was the work of Bank of America giving sub-prime loans to anyone including illegal aliens – my guess would be all of these). Then there are several homes that are in the higher end areas of my state (these I am pondering were either yuppie house flippers or those Americans that tried living BEYOND their American Dream means). I’d probably put money that if you look in your state you may find the same results – especially with Bank of America considering their ‘mortgage lending’ practices.

Why is it that Obama is continuously using the words CRISIS to describe the mortgage foreclosure issue? Why is it the Obama insists that WE the taxpayers have to ‘bail out’ foreclosures on certain mortgage owners? I’d like to take a stab at this and say that it is his way to get more money into the hands of organizations like ACORN. He already has doubled the money in the urban development part of the 2010 budget by extending credit to homeowners and businesses in urban areas. This is the same type of lending that got us into trouble with the CRA (Community Reinvestment Act – first signed by Carter, then again by Clinton) which forced lenders to loosen their restrictions on just who could get a mortgage.

Did mortgage companies prey on people? I believe they did. Did the people have a choice whether or not to take a mortgage they simply HAD to know they couldn’t afford – YES they did. They were not victims. Not to mention Fannie and Freddie gladly offering to purchase all of these ‘bad’ mortgages. A housing bubble was created that eventually had to burst. Housing prices were artificially inflated because anyone and everyone was purchasing a home – whether they could afford it or not. Not just uncreditworthy people but people who CHOSE to live beyond their means and buy into a house that they simply would not truly be able to afford… especially with balloon type mortgages in which they pay only interest now then principal in a couple of years – HELLO did they not figure out what that payment would eventually be? Should these people be bailed out? Not in my opinion.

In reality, the number of foreclosures is MINUTE compared to the number of people paying their mortgages on time every month and for every month since they have owned their homes. Since when does this constitute a crisis? I could see if HALF of all homeowners were facing foreclosure but that is not the case. Obama has even more up his sleeve that he is letting on of course. This ‘crisis’ will allow him to create more and more spending ‘bills’ and programs to offer ‘help’ to people in specific communities, i.e., poor urban and rural communities.

There are already a couple of bills that have been created due to this: The Helping Families Save Their Homes Act of 2009 and the federal Hope for Homeowners program. Both programs created by Congress – Hope for Homeowners has a specific program for homeowners with issues between October 2008 and September 2011 (H4H is not a new program.. just has new guidelines for helping with the ‘mortgage crisis’).

A few examples in Obama’s new budget:
..”The Budget restores funding for the Housing Trust Fund by requesting $1 billion to finance the development, rehabilitation, and preservation of affordable housing for very low income residents.” Exactly what got Fannie & Freddie into trouble in the first place. And why is it that I have to fund low income residents to purchase homes when I myself do NOT own a home yet? Better yet.. why does anyone have to fund low income residents to purchase a home? It is a privilege, NOT a right.

“..Combats mortgage fraud and predatory loans. The Budget funds enhanced enforcement of fair housing, mortgage disclosure, and settlement requirements.” And who exactly is going to enforce this? It was groups like ACORN, funded through taxpayer dollars, that ENABLED these practices.

As Rahm Emmanuel is quoted as saying – “You never want a serious crisis to go to waste. And what I mean by that is an opportunity to do things you think you could not do before.” Since everything seems to be a crisis nowadays with our new administration, it appears they will continue along that path and scare people into believing they need to spend even more taxpayer dollars on even more government programs. The housing crisis is simply NOT a crisis other than to the benefit of the administration. The sky is not falling but big spending is on the rise.

http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1880968,00.html
http://www.consumersrightsleague.org/Issues/Issue/?IssueID=1911
http://www.opencongress.org/bill/111-h1106/text
http://portal.hud.gov/portal/page?

From this previous Presidential election we can conclude the following:

Approx 64 million people said yes to Barack Obama’s and no to John McCain’s campaign message.

Approx 57 million people said yes to John McCain’s message and no to Barack Obama’s message.

With approx 300 million people in the United States and 200 million being eligible to vote….we’re seeing 80 million people not saying anything.
Now I’m sure some of these did not see a message that resonated with them enough to support a candidate, but then there are so many who just do not vote.
Add on top of that the large amount of new voters who were drawn out and the number is rather staggering.

With the majority of the media this campaign season being so one sided and international media also being so one sided it is very tough to get a clear picture of each candidate without taking the time to do your own research.

When speaking with my brother who lives overseas after the election he stated he thought Barack Obama was the best candidate. When asked how he came to this decision from so far away he stated because ‘McCain is a finger on the trigger, ex war hero who has just towed the line with Bush’.

Naturally I was taken back by this so I delved a little further.

‘Have you ever heard of William (Bill) Ayers?’ I asked
‘No’
‘Have you ever heard of Jeremiah Wright?’ I asked
‘No’ again was the answer.
‘How many planes has McCain crashed in his lifetime?’
‘Five’ was the answer
‘How much has Palin spent on clothes for the campaign?’
‘It was over $150,000’
‘Did you hear about her banning books in an Alaskan library?’
‘Oh yeah we heard about that’.

Naturally I was shocked. Not because of the obvious one-sidedness of the British media but the fact my own brother had fallen victim.

Living in the US and being subject to all forms of media (TV, radio and Internet) with this campaign I’d been open to all sides. In the UK you only really have the news media to go on.

Again using the UK as an example I found a man online who was told to take down his Union Jack (British flag) because some minorities in the area were offended and had complained. Now I know the UK has changed with the incoming minorities and the traditional culture being severely diluted…..but this is just ridiculous.

How these people in the UK are not revolting over being told they cannot fly their own flag is beyond me.

This all boils down to change. We’ve heard it a lot in the last months in the good ol’ US of A….but what’s it all about.

Well obviously the UK has changed….and for the British people it appears this change is not good for them and their values and culture. But this change has not happened overnight…this has been small gradual change.

You get the occasional person who is upset at something but rarely speaks out so it seems, thus it continues. Tiptoeing onward and upward until you look back and cannot recognize what it used to be like.

Coming back across ‘the pond’ as we call it, the US is heading in the very same direction.

Granted the country is still much younger, change is still happening and I believe it is not for the better (regardless of what those elected officials say).

I asked someone (who shall remain nameless) during the primaries what they thought of Obama as he was a relative unknown.

‘He’s an Arab!’ was the response.

No matter what proof I stated the only response I got was ‘He’s still an Arab!’

It has been proven time and time again that a large portion of the population do not understand the basic functions of government and who was indeed running in the campaigns. This is either through a lack of active involvement or just a lack of caring as politics was something they were never involved in. They hear one rumor (regardless of its truth) and that’s their opinion.

However what is most troubling about this group of people is that the Obama campaign was able to draw them in, still without an understanding of the campaign and the government.

A fantastic study was done during the closing weeks of the election and details can be found at http://www.howobamagotelected.com/

Be it the Republicans or the Democrats who draw in these new voters it is very dangerous to vote while not fully understanding why you are doing it. Not dangerous to the individual, but dangerous to the country.

In the US you can live life, go to work and watch TV without coming across politics.
Not just Presidential politics either, but local and state politics as well.

Unless it’s a scandal worthy of regular news there is not much coverage on regular TV.

Too many Americans are (as I like to call it) ‘asleep at the wheel’. A voice is only heard when it effects them directly.

Example:
For years this country has not had an energy policy. The US continues to import more and more oil thus relying on foreign nations. This has not only been dangerous but damaging to the US economy by sending huge sums of money overseas.

However not until gas prices started hurting the average person were large amounts of voices heard.

Action could have been taken decades ago but the masses remained silent as they were not directly affected.

Now cries were heard, the offshore oil drilling ban was lifted and thanks to a looming recession the price of oil has plummeted from $150 to under $50 a barrel.
Still there are a huge majority of people who do not understand where the US gets its oil from. A poll conducted by EnergyTomorrow.org shows that many people while upset over the recent high energy prices still do not have a firm grasp on the reasons for it and where the US in fact gets its oil.

http://energytomorrow.org/mediaroom/?id=39&type=v

And what do politicians want to do? Reinstate the offshore oil ban and put more taxes on the price of gasoline.

An energy policy would help solve this issue from returning in the future, but where have the majority of voices gone? Back to their lives as they are no longer being bled dry at the pumps. While the issue remains unresolved…..the ‘huge’ voice has been lost.

Come summer 2009….the prices will be back up and people will once again cry out.

Why is this?

Why do so many Americans not care until it’s too late?

Why does it take so much for the majority of people to act?

Are they just lazy? Do they not care? Are they so wrapped up in their lives to bother?

It’s a troubling and unanswered question which will affect the future of this great nation.

Another current issue is the economic crisis.

Money has been so readily available that in 2007 the US as a whole spent more than it earned. The traditional ‘if you can’t pay cash you can’t afford it’ has long since vanished.

People as young as 18 are able to borrow almost obscene amounts of money with very little proof of being able to pay it back.

Sign up for this credit card and get a free t-shirt.

It doesn’t matter that you have no income….we use your parents as backup.

It all comes down to not being able to afford the item itself, but to afford the payments.

Normally a $50,000 car is out of reach, you’d never have that kind of money laying around. But $400 a month for however many years…..that’s doable.

This then expanded in the 1990’s to lending for houses.

It’s OK that you can’t afford the house under the ‘conventional’ means of borrowing money. We’ll lend you more than the house is worth at a special rate because even if you default the government will back up the mortgage. Enter Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

What they either failed to tell the borrower or the borrower was so dazzled at the prosperity of owning a home that they didn’t care was that the payments will increase after 5 years.

To me its just common sense…..if they can’t afford the house by conventional means then what’s going to happen when the payments adjust?

And even with government backing, what’s going to happen when everyone or even a small majority who has these loans defaults?

Now this housing crisis can be traced back to the Democratic Party and the Community Reinvestment Act started by Carter and revitalized by Clinton.

Both Bush and McCain in the last 5 years signaled the warning bells of the coming disaster but nothing was done and now the Democrats are pointing the finger at ‘Bush’s failed economic policies’

Granted more could have been and should have been done, but once again the masses asleep at the wheel hear Bush being blamed and that’s it….its his fault.

Thus those uneducated people all fall on the side of Obama without knowing the truth and of course…..why should they tell them the truth?

Come back to less than a month ago and to ‘solve’ this economic crisis the government is bailing out private industries.

Investment companies with so many of these dodgy mortgages on the books – they need a bailout otherwise they’ll fail and cause more havoc.

The big 3 auto manufacturers who lost sales due to the high gas prices are on the verge of failing – they need a bailout otherwise they’ll fail and cause more havoc.
CITI Bank who has so many of these dodgy mortgages on their books is failing – they need a bailout otherwise they will collapse.

This bailout bill offering a total of $700 billion of tax payer money was signed in to avert this huge crisis. If this was not put through immediately the whole economy would collapse. Congress goes on a two day vacation between this speech and the votes however, figure that one out.

Over a month and over $1 trillion later the stock market is still in roller coaster mode, more industries are coming to Washington with their hands out and we the tax payer are on the hook for these enormous amounts of money.

Not only that, but congress has now pledged over $7 trillion to save the economy.

Where was the vote on that?

Where are the voices from the masses?
Well people are not directly being affected. Taxes have not gone up to cover this money and people are not being forced to spend much more in their day to day lives. Now when it comes to our children and our children’s children…..how loud will their voices be?

There are much more efficient ways to resolve this crisis created by government. But government appears to just be throwing money at the problem.

Its OK, it’s not their money…..they don’t have to pay it back…we do. They’re just printing more. Where are the voices?

When it comes to those asleep at the wheel losing their jobs….who will they blame?

Blame Bush…it happened on his watch.

Blame Obama…..but he just inherited it from Bush.

What do you think the one-sided media is telling those people?

If they knew the truth…..do you think they would have voted the way they did?

How are they going to learn the truth when all they get is one side?

What is going to happen if we all just sit back and let ‘someone else’ deal with the problem?

Well right now that someone else is the US government.

This economic crisis was caused by government, they are now being left to fix the problem they caused and they are grabbing power and nationalizing industries in the process.

If your house was burgled, your possessions stolen and you knew who stole them, would you let that person head up the investigation? Of course not.
But those who knew what was happening in the mortgage industry, said to the American people (many with their life savings invested in these companies) that everything is fine are the ones now saying they are solving the problem.

Frankly I don’t trust them and you shouldn’t either.

Once again government is not the answer.

The government manipulated the free market system, they have literally destroyed the free market system and they are now spending trillions on dollars to solve the problem they say is the fault of the free market system.

We need to wake up.
If you’re asleep at the wheel too long….the vehicle will crash.
...and we're already a long way off the road.

-Tony Leach