(Thomas Mitchell/4th St8) – Halloween came early this year.
Barry arrived in his carbon spewing Air Force One to pick up a bundle of campaign cash at the Bellagio and hand out taxpayer funds in a lower-income neighborhood.
The trick is, according to the Review-Journal story on the brief stopover, Obama’s promise to loosen the rules for refinancing of mortgages only applies to homes with mortgages held by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and that is about half of a percent of the homes in Clark County. Not all of those would qualify for Barry’s candy.
Then Barry donned his superhero costume and pretended to be all-powerful:
“But last month, when I addressed a joint session of Congress about our jobs crisis, I also said that I intend to do everything in my power to act on behalf of the American people — with or without Congress.
“So I’m here to say to all of you — and to say to the people of Nevada and the people of Las Vegas — we can’t wait for an increasingly dysfunctional Congress to do its job. Where they won’t act, I will.”
That’s the sound of the Constitution being shredded, along with a few congressionally approved laws — never mind how ill-advised they might’ve been.
The president — chief executive of only one branch of government — bragged that his administration has “decided to stop waiting for Congress to fix No Child Left Behind,” and given states the right to opt out. He bragged about cutting the time government contractors wait to get paid. I wonder if that cuts out an audit or two? “And without any help from Congress, we eliminated outdated regulations that will save hospitals and patients billions of dollars.”
Then, the man who once sued Citibank on behalf of ACORN because it was not giving out enough mortgages to unqualified homebuyers, the very thing that created the housing bubble because Fannie and Freddie bought all that worthless paper, promised he, without any act of Congress, would pass out lower-rate loans to people upside down in their home loans:
“ And today, I am pleased to announce that the agency that is in charge is going to be taking a series of steps to help responsible homeowners refinance and take advantage of low mortgage rates. So let me just name those steps.”
— You can refinance even if our home value has fallen 25 percent below the mortgage. “And this is critically important for a place like Las Vegas, where home values have fallen by more than 50 percent over the past five years.” Tell us what we don’t know.
— There will be lower closing costs and certain refinancing fees will be eliminated. Free money!
— More competition so buyers can shop for the best rate by encouraging lenders other than the current mortgage holder to give the loan.
So, everyone run to Barry’s front door before all the candy runs out.
(Check out Mitchell’s blog to view the accompanying videos. – Ed.)
