MucheDumbre

It’s never about the money. Never. It’s always what the money is going to be spent on.

The GOP is holding up President Obama’s stimulus bill because it is laden with pork projects. “Porkapalooza” as it’s being called, doesn’t stimulate the economy it just stimulates some congressional pockets. An increase in food stamps? That only helps the deadbeat losers buy more bonbons and watch more Springer. Another increase in unemployment insurance? That will surely break us, these people need to just get out there and find a job instead of living off the Government tit.  The only way to fix this economic mess is with tax breaks!

Sure, because 8 years of exactly that kind of stuff has been such a great economic boost so far.

It’s not the money, it’s what the money will be spent on. The GOP doesn’t like the idea of the poorer class of people getting a break that their rich brethren would appreciate more. It doesn’t matter to them that studies show a tax cut such as a Capital Gains Tax cut, would be least likely of any idea to stimulate the economy. It doesn’t matter that the Congressional Budget Office , Moody’s Economy.com or even Mark Zandi, the Republican economist who advised John McCain’s presidential campaign all say the same thing.

Extending food stamps is the most effective way to prime the economy’s pump. A $1
increase in food stamp payments boosts GDP by $1.73. People who receive these benefits
are very hard-pressed and will spend any financial aid they receive within a few weeks.
Because these programs are already operating, increased benefits can be quickly
delivered to recipients.

No, because see to help the poorer class people with an increase in food stamps, while being the best and fastest way to energizer the economy, is really just more socialism.  Don’t get me wrong, It’s not that we’re opposed to socialism it’s that we’re opposed to it when it’s helping welfare recipients. As long as it’s going to Wall Street and giant Banks for their office decoration and yearly bonus’ all is well within the GOP.

A $1 increase is food stamps will boost the GDP by $1.73 as opposed to a $1 in tax cuts only giving back $1.02. So what’s being cut? The GOP, who is raging about the stimulus bill for not stimulating the economy, what are they going to cut?  That’s right, the part that actually works, food stamps.

It’s not about the money… it never, ever is.

When asked to vote on President Obama’s bill, not one single House GOP member voted for the package, not a single one. My Muchedumbre colleague had this to say,

“Finally, after 8 years, they are starting to act like Republicans.”

To which another colleague replied

“Yep, that’s the biggest problem with the legislature… voting as a party, not as a country.”

It’s not about the spending, it’s what the money is being spent on. When the billions spent on the war is brought up the answer is of course. “well that didn’t have any effect on the economy, it was the Democrats refusal to stop the abuse in the Fannie/Freddie mess”

I guess we didn’t really need that $12 billion we sent to Iraq, that just vanished. I mean, what could that have paid for?   Nah, none of that broke the back of the economy, it was Freddie and Frannie and those scumbag sub primers who bought houses they couldn’t afford who broke us.

A great line actually. One that the idiot conservative talking heads repeat like RainMan and the People Court intro. The problem is, it’s a load of bullshit. The part these assbags don’t want you to hear, don’t want to think about is from 2003-2004 in the 108th Congress and the 109th Congress (2005-2006), the GOP held the Senate,the House, and the Oval Office. They could have shut any doors to any bill  that was bleeding this country dry had they wanted to. But did they? Nah, it was the Democrats who shut the door the very 1st day they took the power away from the abusers. The GOP likes to  talk about it, they just don’t want to do anything. Now ask yourself why the GOP would scream and cry in front of all the world to see that this Fannie/Freddie open door is what caused the problem. The answer? Because it was the Democrats that opened it to begin with. That I will concede. What I refuse  to let GOP off the hook for is their forgetfulness that they are the one who walked through that door and raped it’s inhabitants.

Why didn’t the GOP close the Fannie/Freddie loopholes? Because the capitalists were making money, making loads of money from those holes and they knew that when the bubble burst they could just say “See we told the Democrats that this would happen and they just didn’t listen.” As long as the money was flowing the GOP didn’t mind the open door at all, it wasn’t until they started losing massive amounts of money that they raised a stink over it.

Citizens, do not let them get away with these this shit. Remember that the GOP had the executive and the legislative branches of Government locked up tight and could have closed the loopholes had they really wanted to. But they didn’t, the Democrats did.

I think this all this bloviating and bellowing about President Obama’s stimulus plan can be summed up in 13 words, spoken by a senior Republican

“Rahm hates us and lets us know it, and we hate him back,”

President Obama has asked for and tried to deliver a bi-partisan atmosphere in DC, after the House vote Rahm Emanuel even suggested the President hold a bipartisan reception at the White House, which John Boehner among others from both parties attended.

President Obama has tried to extend a hand to the GOP, but as they said in regards to his chief of staff, “we hate him..”.  How much do they hate Rahm?  Well, enough to make play-pretty-pretend phones calls to him.

…speaking on the phone in a mock dialogue, pretended to tease White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel the day before the stimulus bill vote in the House of Representatives. “Rahm, you’re making the Clinton mistake going for spending in a crisis. Reagan radically adjusted the tax code in his crisis. Rahm, all you’re trying to do is scare people, like Hank Paulson did with the TARP. It won’t work this time. We’re wise to it. Rahm, you won’t get ten votes from us. Not ten.”

Yes, the GOP’s answer to an extended hand is a mocking phone call with the promise that you won’t get 10 votes from us, not ten!

I wonder if the 7 year olds running the GOP are allowed to stay up late on the weekends or if their mothers shuffle them off to bed early.

On Nov 4 this country spoke up a told the world who we believed in, who we trusted and whose policies we wanted to use to fix this economic catastrophe.

The GOP still isn’t listening, they are still only looking out for the top 1% with capital gains tax cuts instead of food stamps. They are still living in the extreme-partisan atmosphere with their hate of President Obama’s staff. They live and thrive in the fear mongering of the next attack and how it will be the fault of President Obama and not the administration who invaded, killed and tortured untold numbers of people. $12 billion vanished under the last administration, a branch of the company the last VP was CEO of is pleading guilty to government bribery charges in the amount of $95 million paid to officials in Nigeria in exchange for engineering and construction contracts. It’s not about the money, it’s about who gets it. It’s time for the rest of the population to stand up and say once again, we are tired of this shit! We are tired of the lies, the theft, the partisan attacks, we voted for change and we damn well expect it that change and if you didn’t get the message in this time, you will damn well get it next time. 7 in 10 people approve of President Obama, it’s time he start forcing the others to heed their wishes. It’s time for the Democrats to fight for democracy here the way the GOP fought for it in Iraq.  President Obama tried the open hand, now it’s almost time to start using a Left hook.

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I had a very interesting conversation with my Tony Soprano mortgage company the other day. With the layoff and the client list dwindling, I’m paying about 65% of my income to my mortgage. Yeah I know, which is why I’ve been keeping up with all the socialistic mortgage aid programs. Think what you want about me but I’m not afriad to admit when I’m wrong or ask for help when I need it.

So the phone call when something like…

“Hello Mr. Soprano, this is EeKay Gee, how are you today?”

“Well Mrs. Gee, if you would stay on time with your payments I would be better.”

“That is exactly why I called…. I believe I have a solution to both of our problems.. I found a program that goes into effect on December 15, the plan is a basically a loan modification. These are already in existance for hardships, but this is a streamlined version that gets the process started and over with in a matter of minutes.”

A loan Modification can be for many purposes, but basically what they are is the borrower asking the lender for either some plan to repay their past arrearages over time, a reduction in the price that they pay or a payment deferment for X amount of time.

In order to get approved for a loan modification the borrow has to jump through many hoops like a

Image by Lori Spindler via Flickr

good little poodle. There is a hardship letter explaining why you want a loan modification and what you would like that modification to be. Past years tax returns,full financial statements including 401k,retirements,annuities,insurance benefits,bank statements,letters from your boss,medical records, stock and bond statements,pay stubs,disability,unemplyment-retirement and/or Social Security benfits you have applied for… and finally a credit check.

Because anyone asking for a loan modification is sure to have steller credit.

The new streamline approach forgives all of that and asks for 3 simple things,

• that you are able to pay no more than 38% of your income
• that you certify your gross monthly wages
• that you haven’t filed for bankruptcy

easy peasey-pudding pie.

Image via Wikipedia

“You see Mr. Soprano, this new system makes it all so much faster and easier.”

“Yeah, but Mrs. Gee this is for Fannie,Freddie and Indymac mortgages only.. By the way,Big Pussy will be stopping by your house later tonight.”

“Mr. Soprano, I’d love to have Pussy for dinner, but while this plan is only mandated for Fredddie,Fannie and IndyMac, many other major lenders are following the same plan. The FDIC is recommending all lenders, including private ones such as yourself, follow the plan.”

The plan is not only easy-peasy in it’s application, it’s simple in it’s problem solving abilities. The lender will rework the loan to make sure the borrower is not paying anymore than 38% of their income, there are various way to do this, as this .pdf explains. Lowering the interest rates and extending the term of the mortgage are just a couple of options. The idea is to keep people in their homes at a payment they can afford and keep the mortgage company from losing more and more money when borrowers default.Which leave their homes vacant and all the unsold homes bringing the market down even farther.

“Mr. Soparno, if you would lower my interest rate from 13% to 6 percent for 5 years and then raise that interest 1% a year until it reaches the Freddie Mortgage Survey Rate you would still be making money off the money you loaned me and I would be able to stay in my home”

“Let me get this straight, you want me to reduce the money I”m going to make so you don’t have to pay me back for something that you promised to pay back?”

“Yes.”

“I’ll give this, you have balls. But Mrs Gee, we don’t give free stuff to people in this country and you … “

“I’m not getting anything for free though, I’m getting something at a 6% interest rate for 5 years and then an increase of 1% until it matches the prime mortgage rate, that’s extra money for you off of your investment. I know this is non-tradional, but the biggie lenders are seeking out and cold calling their borrrowers and offering this to them in an effort to keep people paying on their loans and not defaulting on them. JP Morgan, Citigroup and WellsFargo all are using the program voluntarily. Which the FDIC hopes that all lenders will follow.”

“Mrs Gee, this program doesn’t benefit me in any way so why would I offer it to you?”

“But it does Mr. Soprano. I will be paying you back on your loan instead of not paying you anything and that is a benefit to you.”

“No, a benefit is when I get something out of what I put in, why would I reduce the interest rate to such a small level when I can make double that leaving it what it is now?”

“Mr. Soprano, you won’t be making double anything if I default on this mortgage, with this plan you will atleast get your investment back plus 6%.”

“Yeah, but I want 13%.”

“..and I want wishes to flow from my ass like raindrops, but I’m willing to let that dream go if I….”

“What did you just say?”

“nothing….”

“That’s what I thought. Look Mrs. G, as I said, this plan isn’t for your type of loan, I will send you the loan modification papers that we have always used and you get me everything on the requirement list, if you don’t have something, write a note explaining why you don’t have it and then take it to a notary and get the note notarized. Do this for each individual item, you can’t just make a blanket note covering all the things on one paper. After we receive this paper work from you, we will pull your credit report and if your credit is above average, we will go from there.”

“You would rather get nothing than get something.. “

“That’s the gist of it, yes.”

“Can I ask why”

“Because I do not believe anyone should get a free ride, I worked hard to get where I am at and if I can do it anyone can. If I reduce your interest rate I will be losing 7 points and I am not in the buisness to lose money, a 6% return is not good enough when a year ago I was getting 13%.”

“..and 6% will seem like a butt-load of money when you are getting zero.”

“Oh, I will be getting something..I will get your house.”

“Not right now you won’t. Now you’ll force me to file bankrupcty and while we are dragging that process out for 6-9 months you won’t be getting anything, and when congress approves the plan to allow bankrupcty judges to re-work mortgages into the FDIC plan, I will start paying you back your money with a 6% return on your investment”

“That won’t happen, you forget I have more money to spend on lawyers than you do..Pussy will be there to collect my return shortly”

He’s right of course, it was my responsibility to repay him the money he loaned me at the rate he charged. I have done that each and every month but now, through no fault of my own, I can’t keep paying 65% of my income out to one creditor. To give me and the millions of others like me this plan is not giving us scumbags something for nothing. It’s just smart buisness. According the Joint Economic Committee of Congress, the average foreclosure costs $77,935 while preventing a foreclosure runs $3,300.

When the best interest for all is to take a little less than you hoped to get.. isn’t something better than nothing? Especially when to do so cost pennies that can be put back on to the borrow compared to tens of thousands that can’t be put onto to anyone other than the lender.

I guess not…

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