July 30, 2008

Changing topics for a moment.....

Let me preface this by saying I have been in the mortgage business for over 20 years and this is by far the best short assessment of the massive problem the government is creating with this bail out bill. I have been against it from the beginning and remain strongly opposed to it now.

You have to read this.


Lead StoryExtreme stupidity: No tears for latest “victims” of foreclosure
By Michelle Malkin • July 30, 2008 05:18 AM
MakeStickers.com

I’ll get to the extreme stupidity of the “victims” of the “Extreme Makeover” home foreclosure in just a moment.

But first, a reminder: If you go through my entire archive of subprime crisis posts over the past year– starting with this one from last August blasting Hillary’s socialist housing bailout plan and continuing through this post in December on a supposed subprime sob story involving an unemployed couple $600,000 in debt and looking for a housing bailout to this post in January on irresponsible borrowers walking away from their mortgages and this one on the need for a “Suck It Up” candidate, to this one on outraged readers sick of the moochers riding the bailout bandwagon to this one in April on irresponsible borrowers trashing their homes, leaving their pets behind, and setting their houses on fire– you’ll note a prominent and recurring theme.

A theme that most media coverage refuses to spotlight.

A theme that only a few rare politicians in Washington dare to raise.

The theme is that the subprime crisis isn’t merely the result of “predatory lenders,” but of countless predatory borrowers and reckless homeowners as well who bought more home than they could afford and binged on home equity loans–and now expect responsible renters and conscientious borrowers to cover their asses and assets.



Enter Milton and and Patricia Harper and their three children, the Atlanta-area beneficiaries of a massive home giveaway on ABC’s popular Extreme Makeover TV show three years ago. (Tour their home here.) The four-bedroom, three-garage home–the largest project of the Extreme Makeover team to date– is now in foreclosure. After accepting a quarter-million in charitable contributions from homebuilder Beezer Homes’ employees and company partners, moving into a free home that cost upwards of $450,000, enjoying an all-expenses-paid trip to Disneyland while the house was being built, and also raking in enough money from the show to cover taxes on the house for 25 years, the Harper family turned around and put their custom-made dream mansion up as collateral for a $450,000 loan that purportedly went to fund the Harpers’ failed construction business.

Now: Tell me where in any of the bipartisan housing bills that Washington has passed there is protection of my tax dollars from going to bail out people like these? Where?

The Associated Press is casting the Harpers and their soon-to-be foreclosed home as “victims.”

No, you ninnies.

People who scrimped and saved and acted responsibly are the victims. People who will be forced to fork over their money to prevent foreclosures on homes owned by squanderers like the Harpers are the victims.

People who are protected from the consequences of their actions are beneficiaries.

People who have to pay for the consequences of the bad decisions of others are victims.

Got it?

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