Obama Rips McCain Mortgage Plan

(AP)  Democrat Barack Obama told a campaign audience Thursday that Republican John McCain's mortgage buyout plan would cost taxpayers billions of dollars and reward bad behavior by lenders.

Speaking in Dayton as he started a two-day bus tour of hotly contested Ohio, Obama said McCain's plan would force the government to absorb the full cost of renegotiating mortgages to prevent borrowers from losing their homes. Lenders should share some of the costs, he said.

The Democratic presidential candidate's campaign also criticized McCain's mortgage plan in a new 30-second ad to air nationally on cable TV, a relatively inexpensive way of drawing media attention to an issue.

Both candidates are competing hard for Ohio's 20 electoral votes which were pivotal in President Bush's victory four years ago. Obama plans five Ohio rallies Thursday and Friday, and will return next week to Toledo to prepare for Wednesday's debate on Long Island, N.Y.

Obama took another jab at McCain, whose family owns several houses, when he renewed his call to change bankruptcy laws to help hard-pressed borrowers keep their homes.

"Right now, the law lets bankruptcy judges write down your mortgage if you own six or seven homes," he said, "but not if you have only one."

"That might help Sen. McCain sleep easier at night, but it won't do anything for folks like you," Obama told thousands at a baseball stadium.

Obama said McCain's mortgage plan "punishes taxpayers, rewards banks, and won't solve our housing crisis."

He said it would "guarantee that American taxpayers lose by handing over $300 billion to underwrite the kind of greed and irresponsibility on Wall Street that got us into this mess."

McCain's campaign, meanwhile, has changed its mortgage plan. When the campaign distributed its description of the plan, it said the government would buy failed mortgages at discounted rates. Conservatives had pushed for that language because many of the homes are not worth the amount mortgaged.

But on Wednesday, the campaign deleted that line, which would mean the government would pay the full value of the mortgage.

McCain spokesman Brian Rogers said the policy didn't change, but an edit was made to remove "excess and confusing language."

The move would make the plan more costly than the $300 million initially cited to pay additional funds to financial institutions.

McCain has said his plan is expensive but necessary to get thousands of bad mortgages off the books and to stop the fall in home values and credit availability.

McCain campaign spokesman Tucker Bounds said the plan represents "no new expense to the taxpayer, but simply refocuses priorities to more directly assist the homeowners who are hurting instead of greed on Wall Street."

Obama said the government should use some of the $700 billion in the newly enacted financial rescue plan to buy up troubled mortgages.

"But we need to do it in a responsible way," he said. The government should not overpay for the mortgages, he said, or reward "the very lenders whose recklessness helped cause this crisis."

Taxpayers should be assured "a share of the benefits when our housing market recovers," he said, and the government should crack down "predatory lenders."

Saying McCain has offered widely different economic proposals lately, Obama added, "I don't think we can afford that kind of erratic and uncertain leadership in these uncertain times." Some Republicans say the word "erratic" is meant to raise doubts about McCain's age, 72.

Obama's campaign criticized McCain's mortgage plan Wednesday, but Thursday marked the first time Obama addressed it himself.

A new Obama campaign TV ad says McCain "would shift the burden from lenders to taxpayers, guaranteeing a loss of taxpayer money" and rewarding lenders "that caused the crisis in the first place."

Speaking to about 8,000 people under sunny skies, Obama veered occasionally from his prepared text to make lighthearted asides. Stock values have dropped so sharply, he said, that many people's retirement accounts are now "101(k)s" instead of 401(k)s, the name derived from a section of the tax code.

[misha128-2009]

McCain;s plan makes the bank;s whole for all home loans sold and sticks the taxpayers with all the losses -- protecting the CxO salaries and golden parachutes allowing them to bypass the controls of the bailout passed earlier. Paulson proposes to double down on the corporate welfare by Buying NON VOTING STOCK IN BANKS TO RECAPITALIZE THEM -- even further subsidising CxO salaries and golden parachutes with no government control or apparently even a preferred position in cases of liquidation or to recover the investment. The Bush administration with the occurance of Senator McCain is planning to stick the taxpayers to assure the Wall Street CxOs do not suffer. It''s time to assure this administration and Secy Paulson assures the banks suffer for their incompetence and considerable ownership transfers to the federal government to provide a reasonable and hopefully very reasonable possibility that the taxpayers are not left holding a mountain of debt.

[ubu2008]

Obama needs to be honest on McCain''s mortgage plan. He doesn''t like it because it would not reward the home owner who committed fraud or lied on their application. Of course, reason two would be that he couldn''t funnel the money to his good friends at ACORN

[clovisbuford]

errr 13 cars , not 134 ... of course once you get past 10 who is counting

[clovisbuford]

Of course Obama rips McCain on Mortgage Plan. He never really outlines his plans, so it''''s impossible to challenge Obama, since his vague and clever, but your can''''t nail him down. McCain is being constructive here. Obama is not for a rescue package, he''''s for the Rezko package. We know how he got his house!
Posted by Xpineapple at 11:16 PM : Oct 09, 2008
errr and Mccain''s personal 7 houses ? 10 houses? 134 cars? ..500 dollar italian shoes ..oh right obama raised by a single motehr is the elitist .. hello reality

[clovisbuford]

the source for my quotes below is here http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2008/09/undermining-mcc.html Another exaple of the dishoinourable campaign Mccain is running , anything to get elected , no answer to the economic crisia , He will probably sacrifice Palin next , now that proved to be such a mistake . Mccains only hope is to scare the american voter with inuendo and lies ,because he has no solutions for the issues . good luck with taht and Mccain promised to take the high road? reaaly?

[clovisbuford]

"Obama tried to sway Iraqis on Bush deal
In private conversations on troop presence, candidate pitched delay""a LOSER, as are those who support him!
Posted by LibH8er at 01:21 PM : Oct 10, 2008" not the the truth ever slows you down libhater, your name says it all , you are at war with your own countrymen.
"Attendees of the meeting back Obama''s account, including not just Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., but Hagel, and Senate Foreign Relations Committee staffers from both parties. Officials of the Bush administration who were briefed on the meeting by the U.S. embassy in Baghdad also support Obama''s account and dispute the Post story and McCain attack.
The Post story is "absolutely not true," Hagel spokesman Mike Buttry told ABC News.
"Barack Obama has never urged a delay in negotiations," said Obama campaign national security spokesperson Wendy Morigi, "nor has he urged a delay in immediately beginning a responsible drawdown of our combat brigades."A Bush administration official with knowledge of the meeting says that, during the meeting, Obama stressed to al-Maliki that he would not interfere with President Bush''s negotiations concerning the U.S. troop presence in Iraq, and that he supports the Bush administration''s position on the need to negotiate, as soon as possible, the Status of Forces Agreement, which deals with, among other matters, U.S. troops having immunity from local prosecution."

[libh8er]

Obama tried to sway Iraqis on Bush deal
In private conversations on troop presence, candidate pitched delay

Barbara Slavin
Friday, October 10, 2008

At the same time the Bush administration was negotiating a still elusive agreement to keep the U.S. military in Iraq, Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama tried to convince Iraqi leaders in private conversations that the president shouldn''t be allowed to enact the deal without congressional approval.

a LOSER, as are those who support him!

[harbinger09]

This is funny--McCain made Republicans embrace a former mistress as potential first lady, illegitimate teen pregnancy, and now they must embrace socialism and helping out the poor--before its over, the Republican party will seem more liberal than the Democrats and the Republicans have to swallow it--because he is all that they have.

Paying for a public bailout indeed--what were those conservative values again? Hypocrites.

[harbinger09]

Gordon Liddy---Palin and McCain''s own terrorist pal...heh heh

and here''s a little ditty about Palin, courtesy of the good ol'' UK:

Here is the link for the article below:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2008/oct/03/sarah.palin.debate.feminism

[harbinger09]

McCain sounds like a Democrat--The Republicans are pushing for a democratic president and an airhead, they fail to see the writing on the wall--McCain and Palin are both flakes.