McCain: Working Families to Blame for Mortgage Mess

[Omaha Steve]

http://blog.aflcio.org/2008/03/25/mccain-mortgage-crisis-victims-are-too-lazy-to-keep-their-homes/

by Seth Michaels, Mar 25, 2008

Across the country, the collapse of the housing market has created a crisis of foreclosures that is dragging down the economy. Finding a fair solution for this mess should be a top priority of the next president.



So presidential candidate Sen. John McCain must have a plan to address the crisis, right? Not so. In fact, the Republican from Arizona blames the millions of America’s working families who have lost their homes. They, says McCain, caused the economic downturn.

Of those 80 million homeowners, only 55 million have a mortgage at all, and 51 million are doing what is necessary—working a second job, skipping a vacation, and managing their budgets—to make their payments on time. That leaves us with a puzzling situation: How could 4 million mortgages cause this much trouble for us all?

It’s just another example of how McCain—by his own admission—“never really understood” the economy. (McCain now denies he said that; who wouldn’t, running for president?) In the face of the nationwide crisis brought on by predatory lending, stagnant wages and vast wealth inequities, McCain says it’s the fault of home owners.


McCain compounded the outrage of his comments by making them before a California audience. California has been hit hard by the housing crisis. The state has the second-highest foreclosure rate in the country, with more than 57,000 foreclosures in January—120 percent higher than in January 2007.


McCain, and the lobbyists who run his campaign, has raked in money from the banks and mortgage lenders whose irresponsibility helped create the crisis. So he can’t point the finger at them—he needs the campaign cash. Meanwhile, although he hasn’t shown up in the Senate too often to vote in recent months, in 2005 he voted against a bill to discourage predatory lending.


(Check out Think Progress on McCain’s record of denying assistance to home owners.)


Union members, who understand what McCain stands for, aren’t letting him get away with it. While McCain and his wealthy supporters held a $1,000-a-plate private fundraiser yesterday in La Jolla, more than 50 union members from the San Diego-Imperial Counties Labor Council gathered outside to educate people about McCain’s record. The California events follow similar actions in Pennsylvania, New Hampshire and Missouri, all part of the AFL-CIO’s nationwide McCain Revealed campaign to get the word out about McCain’s anti-worker record.


FULL story at link.

[islandmkl]

1. but,,,,but,,,,jr. said it was from 'too many houses'....

he's right, isn't he???

i really don't understand all that much about economics....

[opihimoimoi]

2. Whad ya expect from McCane?? He Majored in BOOBs and BOOZE...Jus like Bush did

They Still think we gonna believe Whatever they tell us....Watch Bushies face when he tells us something...Decider my ass...

Now its McLames turn....what those Pubs think we are...stupid?