Edwards Slams Bush Mortgage Plan

During Hometown Visit, Democratic Hopeful Says President's Proposal Doesn't Go Far Enough

(CBS/AP)  Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards on Thursday said President Bush's plan to help homeowners with rising mortgage payments doesn't go far enough and he would freeze interest rates for seven years.

"What we've got to do is not just help a few, we need to provide help for everybody," Edwards told about 900 people at Walhalla High School near his hometown in this early voting state. "We need to make refinancing options available. I do think it's a good idea to freeze these rates. I'd do it for seven years. We also need a national rescue fund to help these families."

Bush on Thursday announced a plan to freeze interest rates for five years for hundreds of thousands of strapped homeowners whose mortgages are scheduled to rise in the coming months.

Hillary Rodham Clinton also criticized the plan, saying it was designed to "help as few homeowners as possible" while proposing a moratorium on foreclosures, an across-the-board rate freeze and reporting requirements for servicers and lenders.

“America needs a plan that matches the scale of the crisis, and President Bush has failed to deliver it," Clinton said in a release. "But that is what happens when you are more interested in protecting corporate interests than struggling families."

At an earlier stop at Edwards' childhood home, the former North Carolina senator said the president had damaged the United States' reputation worldwide.

"I do believe George Bush has bullied and acted in an arrogant way and it has damaged America's standing in the world in a serious way and I intend to reverse that," Edwards said.

He was scheduled to campaign in Charleston later Thursday with musician and actor Harry Belafonte, also a harsh critic of the Bush administration.

Belafonte compared the Homeland Security Department to the Nazi Gestapo and attacked the president as a liar. During a trip to Venezuela last year, he met with socialist leader Hugo Chavez and called President Bush "the greatest terrorist in the world."

Edwards campaigned much of the day with his parents and helped open Oconee County's new Democratic Party headquarters, arriving to the Bon Jovi song, "Who says you can't go home."

Edwards' mother said her son's talk about his down-home, rural Southern roots is hardly political rhetoric.

"He's telling the truth. He grew up in a working class environment, with working, everyday people," said Bobbie Edwards, 74. "When John talks about his background, it's true."

Edwards said he was not worried an AP-Pew poll released this week showed him in a distant third place behind front-runners Clinton and Barack Obama. The poll also showed that health care was a top concern among Democrats in South Carolina, and the majority of likely primary voters said the New York senator would do the best job improving the system.

"The vast majority of South Carolina voters have not decided what to do yet. And what will happen is they will understand I have the first and the strongest universal health care plan that is central to what I want to do as president," Edwards said. "My approach is different. My approach is to shake up Washington and take on insurance companies and drug companies, which I've been doing my whole life."

[standlee5]

All this talk about Edwards being a lawyer. Most of congress were lawyers. What''s the big deal. Hillary''s a lawyer, Obama was a lawyer. So what.

[standlee5]

Right ON! Freeze interest rates for seven years. Sounds good to me. I would however encourage people who took out loans too big for their income to let the banks have the overpriced bloated houses back and rent. Let them eat there mistakes. And let the people get on with their lives without the burden of such heavy debt.

[logicanada]

Who was it that stormed the temple and chastised the money lenders and traders.
Oh... right ... Jesus.
For a society that stresses Christianity there should be no such thing as interest rates.
Or are we living in the house of mammon?

[infidel_us]

Liberals - demonizing doctors while glorifying the lawyers who sue them
Posted by dogsoul at 02:07 PM : Dec 07, 2007

Well said and RIGHT ON!

[nottellin1]

I see this from the perspective of someone who wants to buy a home in the next few years. All this risky lending has pushed up prices for buyers. 5 years ago in Connecticut you could buy a nice house for $200,000. Today that would only get you a fixer upper.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Posted by ontheleft at 02:14 AM : Dec 07, 2007

Consider yourself lucky. In Cali, 200,000 won''t even buy a small lot to build on.

[agnim]

I didn''t see where the article pointed out that Harry Belafonte is a WWII vet who understands when the liberties he fought for are being trampled by a genocidal mass murderer who cowardly hid away from the Vietnam war?

[forthepeopl1]

it''s so funny that they think that this all that has been destoyed by the bush adminastration(cheney) everyday they do it. and for our congressman and woman and senators to be suprised that this happen is killing me i cant stop laughing, boy do we have a stupid and so blind goverment

Senator Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts, a persistent critic of the Bush administration''s anti-terrorism policies, was to speak on the Senate floor about the destruction of the interrogation tapes, and its not having been revealed for some two years. At least one Republican lawmaker has also expressed dismay over the destruction of the tapes.

The CIA''s destruction of the tapes came in the midst of Congressional and legal scrutiny about its secret detention program, according to current and former government officials.
White House officials declined this morning to comment on the matter.

"This matter must be promptly and fully investigated," said Harman, now head of the Homeland Security subcommittee on intelligence and terrorism risk assessment. She noted that in early 2003 she received "a highly classified briefing" on CIA interrogation practices from the agency''s general counsel, and that she had expressed "serious concerns" in a letter to the lawyer afterward.

"I call for my letter of February 2003, which was CLINTON IS A PIG JUST LIKE HER BROTHERS BUSH/CHENEY, WILL SAY ANYTHING TO GET WHAT THEY WANT..THEN STAB YOU RIGHT IN THE HART

[jersupporter]

I have to believe that dogsoul and mudrose have no answer? Perhaps self-gratification does have its limits. I am quite sure they will come back with hate talk about liberals, etc, but nothing about service? Me, mine - sounds like a little kid.

[dogband]

Doesn''t go far enough?

Holy ***. I don''t want a *** dime of my tax dollars to go to bail out anyone, or set up any kind of goverment agency to oversee any type of rate freezers or anything.

Bush and elected officials don''t care if you keep your home or if you sleep in a box. They don''t care if your kids keep dying in Iraq, so they *** WELL DO NOT CARE ABOUT THIS.

Bush does care that the stock market stays high = happy republicans and that rich republicans don''t loose their houses = republican votes.

How many people with houses below $150,000 in value will be helped vs the people with houses above $400,000 who will be helped.

Some *** in an AP article was crying because his REMODELING mortgage was going from $1600 month to $1900 month. Greedy B A S T A R D. I hope he looses the whole *** thing. Get a second *** job at Walmart you lazy ***.

12 years ago I bought a modest house on a 30 year mortgage that cost less than my/wifes annual combined income--we paid it off in 11 years. Our cars [not Republican bigass SUVs] each cost about 20% of our total income, and each get 25 MPG.

Do I give a *** if greedy, live well beyond your means people loose their houses, and are forced to rent a condo till they get back on their feet?

H E L L N O !!!

[jersupporter]

hypocricy - have you ever served your community or country?
Don''t get upset because your views are not the desired or publicly approved attitude. Your beliefs and character are a direct reflection of what the current adminstration has brought to the American people. Your flag waving serves no purpose unless you have stepped up to the plate and actually served for the betterment of society. I seriously doubt that you have and you relegate your hatred (or jealousy) for those who have. Stay informed and speak about issues rather than spewing ideals that you cannot uphold even at the minimal level. KEEP PISSING IN THE WIND AND THEN COMPLAINING WHEN IT HITS YOU RIGHT BACK IN YOUR FACE.