McCain offers a "Herbert Hoover" non-action to those being foreclosed

According to TPM Reader YA McCain, representing the elitist Republicans, asked two weeks ago

"how 4 million mortgages [could] cause this much trouble for us all," and suggested that if those borrowers just took fewer vacations and managed their budgets more effectively, they wouldn't be in trouble."

Let's remember now, he was a fighter pilot and a war hero forty years ago, but he graduated 6th from the bottom in his class of Annapolis. Not quite as bad as George Custer who graduated at the very bottom of his West Point class before leading his 7th Cav troops into disaster at the Little Big Horn, but this certainly indicates that McCain is not the sharpest tack in the box.

McCain parleyed his war hero status and a second marriage to a wealthy woman into a career in politics, but there is no indication that he ever got a lot smarter. Apparently he did catch some flack for his indifference to those who are having their homes foreclosed, so YA says he offered a new non-plan that conceals his indifference, but does nothing significant for the people being foreclosed. Here is YA's report on the new plan:

Today, he promised to help "every deserving American family or homeowner." So how many American families are deserving? McCain's top economic policy adviser, Douglas Holtz-Eakin, places the number between 200,000 and 400,000 households; just those families "who really need help."

Great. So to be clear, McCain thinks that millions of Americans are going to lose their homes, and all but a few hundred thousand are just getting what they deserve. Specifically, he's prepared to step forward and help only those who:

-Took out a subprime loan after 2005

-Can prove they were "creditworthy" at the time

-Are unable to pay that subprime loan

-But could pay a 30-year fixed rate loan

Of course, pretty much all those folks already qualify for assistance under the existing FHASecure program. McCain's proposal offers greater leverage over recalcitrant lenders, and shoulders some of the cost of restructuring the loans, but virtually everyone who meets his guidelines is already eligible for help. [Snip]

it's typical Republican bamboozlement. McCain says that perhaps a few hundred thousand homeowners deserve ever so slightly more help than they're already receiving, but that millions of others should lose their homes. And
it's worth pointing out that most analysts agree that the number of folks who would be helped by this plan is probably much smaller than Holtz-Eakin estimates. There's really not much difference between his initial position and his bold new plan - they both amount to inaction.

There it is. McCain has moved from indifference to the people being foreclosed to a refined plan that can be used to conceal the indifference but still does nothing effective.

Nothing effective to deal with the housing crunch and the Recession. That's Bush's position, also, and both are channeling that great conservative, Herbert Hoover, who similarly watched America sail into financial disaster and refused to act.

YA adds one more comment:

"John McCain says he'd be happy to see our troops in Iraq for another hundred years," the Democrats would do well to add, "John McCain says that millions of Americans deserve to lose their homes."

In the America that the conservatives are working hard to create there is no America, just a lot of individuals who are each on their own to fight, steal, rob and screw those around them to get ahead economically. The elite are the wealthy (like McCain) who are protected by their wealth. This is the Reagan Revolution, also known as the YoYo economy. That's "You're on your own," something demonstrated when Katrina hit New Orleans.

The World War II generation must be rolling in their graves as they watch Bush and his clone, McCain working to destroy America and pick its bones for their own wealth. But hey! The news media (especially FOX) has declared McCain a Maverick and he is a well-known war hero, so maybe he's good enough to elect President, right? Here is the example:



He'll just move in to the White House in time for his nap, I guess. He doesn't plan to take any actions, but at his age, he probably shouldn't exert himself too much anyway. A lot like Bush, who doesn't have the excuse of age, but has the same elitist idea that government is for and of the wealthy elites and the rest of us are here at their sufferance.