Sen. Kyl Tries to Pin Blame For Economic Mess on Democrats, 'Minorities,' 'The Poor,' and 'The Young

[marmar]

from HuffPost:



David M. Abromowitz
Sen. Kyl Tries to Pin Blame For Economic Mess on Democrats, 'Minorities,' 'The Poor,' and 'The Young'
Posted March 26, 2008 | 06:44 PM (EST)



Compassion, it seems, is easier in boom times.

Arizona now has the fourth-highest foreclosure rate in America, with 9,540 foreclosures in February, up 210 percent from 2007. So maybe it's natural that Sen. John Kyl (R-AZ) would want to revise history by shifting blame for the crash in home prices plaguing Arizonans and millions of homeowners onto the Democrats, as he did on ABC's This Week recently:

It wasn't the Bush administration as much as it was Democrats in Congress who were pushing the lending institutions to get out there and lend more money, even to unqualified buyers - to the minorities, to the poor, to the young - so that everyone could own a home.

Blaming Democrats for the market meltdown ranks high on the disingenuous scale, right up with Karl Rove's outlandish claim that the Democratic Congress pushed a reluctant, peace-loving President Bush to invade Iraq.

Under the Bush administration, former Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan and other Bush financial officials promoted easy money, low interest rate polices together with underregulation of virtually anything that could be called a free market financial "innovation." During this time, regulatory powers to police the rise of non-bank mortgage originators pushing high cost loans without reserve or risk-retention requirements were put into mothballs. Fueled by this high octane mix, the subprime market exploded from 2001 until 2006, making up perhaps as much as 50 percent of the increase in homeownership during that period.

If only Sen. Kyl had aired his criticisms of unfettered lending practices in 2003, when he stood with Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) at a Phoenix fundraiser and listened to President Bush extol the virtues of an "ownership society." At that time, the president said:

A compassionate society must promote opportunity for everyone, including the independence and dignity from ownership. My administration will constantly strive to promote an ownership society in America. We want more people owning their own home. We have a minority home-ownership-gap in America. I proposed a plan to the Congress to close that gap....This administration understands that when a person owns something, he or she has a vital stake in the future of this country.

When it was popular to stand for expanding homeownership, Sen. Kyl was there in 2006 to praise federal aid for minority and low income families in Phoenix:

Habitat's work, including the partnership with HUD, has produced great results and made a truly positive impact in the Phoenix neighborhoods. The SHOP grants announced today will help make it possible for many more Arizona families to realize the dream of homeownership.

Certainly advocates for low- and moderate-income families fought for greater access to home mortgage loans for Americans historically frozen out of the Great American Dream. Some argued for nothing-down mortgages and flexible underwriting standards. But by and large, these groups also advocated full lending disclosure, extensive homebuying counseling, and other protections for consumers. The record of affordable homeownership approaches such as those promoted by community development corporations, community land trusts, and similar efforts shows a low foreclosure rate and great stability even among buyers whose income is below the median.

But with millions in foreclosure and financial markets quaking at the massive debt piled on top of "difficult to value" pools of mortgages, pointing the finger at Democrats - or blaming "minorities," "poor," and "young" Americans who bought houses to join the ownership society -- is certainly convenient. With millions of them foreclosed on, they might not be watching Sunday morning news shows to set the record straight.


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-m-abromowitz/sen-kyl-tries-to-pin-bla_b_93608.html

[TygrBright]

1. IOW, at everyone except the greedheads responsible for the disaster that is America's economy today.

GOPpie greedheads, mostly.

But I'm sure he's not being partisan.

snarkily,
Bright

[Trajan]

2. The Democratic Party fails to 'get it' ....

They have the Golden Goose in their grasp, yet they fail to help it lay any eggs ....

The current economic crises is due (imho) to a serious lack of pay increases over the last 20 years .... THAT is due to conservative economic philosophy that attempts (and succeeds to a large degree) to reduce wages and other compensation across the board for all working families ....

It is a lack of WAGES that strangles families trying to rise above the rising costs of today's world ....

Senator Kyl ? .... If your supporters PAID THEIR WORKERS A DECENT AND REASONABLE WAGE, they would have the money to pay for them fancy loans ....

Asshole ....

Democratic Party ? ..... REGAIN your position as a protector of workers and families ....

[bobbolink]

11. You SOOO get it! Yet, I doubt many will hear your words.

Too frightening to look at reality.

Oh, and besides wages... a realistic amount for those of us on fixed incomes! Do you know those of us on SSI don't even get a piece of that tax rebate thingie? We would certainly put money back into the economy!

How's that for crap?

Keep preachin' it!

[NMDemDist2]

3. there's a reason we call him "Vile Kyl" n/t

[mod mom]

4. Nothing to do with inequality of wealth-silly me:

The increase in incomes of the top 1 percent of Americans from 2003 to 2005 exceeded the total income of the poorest 20 percent of Americans, data in a new report by the Congressional Budget Office shows.

The poorest fifth of households had total income of $383.4 billion in 2005, while just the increase in income for the top 1 percent came to $524.8 billion, a figure 37 percent higher.

The total income of the top 1.1 million households was $1.8 trillion, or 18.1 percent of the total income of all Americans, up from 14.3 percent of all income in 2003. The total 2005 income of the three million individual Americans at the top was roughly equal to that of the bottom 166 million Americans, analysis of the report showed.

The report is the latest to document the growing concentration of income at the top, a trend that President Bush said last January had been under way for more than 25 years.

Earlier reports, based on tax returns, showed that in 2005 the top 10 percent, top 1 percent and fractions of the top 1 percent enjoyed their greatest share of income since 1928 and 1929.

-snip
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/15/business/15rich.html?ref=business




New data from the Internal Revenue Service show that income inequality continues to widen. The wealthiest 1 percent of Americans earn more than 21 percent of all income. That's a postwar record. The bottom 50 percent of all Americans, when all their wages are combined, earn just 12.8 percent of the nation's income.

http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2007/10/25/taxes/

[NC_Nurse]

5. It's deregulation, asshole.

Guess who's always advocated deregulating anything and everything. That's right -Repubs.
If they hadn't rolled back regulation so much since Ronnie Raygun took us all for a ride, a lot
of these "bubbles" would never have occurred. Then we could avoid the inevitable bursting of the bubbles.



on edit: I'm calling Kyl an asshole, not the OP. It occurred to me someone might think I meant them. Oops.

[marmar]

6. I figured as much......

:)

[NC_Nurse]

8. Good.

:hi:

BTW, you always post great stuff - thanks!!! :yourock:

[stillcool]

7. I feel so nauseous

[Warpy]

9. They'll never blame their own wretchedly bad economic dogma

even though it is what led to the Great Depression and threatens to repeat that again as the economy as a whole gets weaker and weaker.

[tavalon]

10. I didn't see anywhere in the article where it identified him as a Dem or a Repig, so,

I'm going to play, guess the party. Hmmmmmmmm,........

Repig?

Whoo hoo! I won! I won!

[rosesaylavee]

12. He's an absolutely right

wing nutjob.

It was all us crazy DEMs who took the largest surplus the country had ever seen and made it the biggest deficit the country had ever seen. Right you right-wing nutjob. Whatever it takes to allow you to sleep at night.

[texshelters]

13. Lots of good comments here

I would add that Kyl almost lost in AZ and if the Dems had any cajones, they would takes notes and target him in Arizona in the next election cycle. And McCain seat will be up for grabs too. Almost any Democrats, except Leiberman will be better than Kyl.

Tex Shelters

[Greyhound]

14. Hey, the morans keep sending him back.

One of the many reason we don't live there any more.

[DCKit]

15. A huge "Grrrrrrrecommend" for my favorite Republic asshat/tool.

What a maroon.

[PA Democrat]

16. I just LOVE the stinking hypocrisy of this idiot.

The little guy should not have taken out a mortgage that he might not be able to afford down the road, but the lenders have no responsibility apparently in Kyle's eyes for diligence in evaluating loan applicants.

Then there's the investment banks who bought huge amounts of these mortgages ON MARGIN. They borrowed huge sums of money to buy risky mortgages. But THEY are deserving of a bailout.

As an example, the Carlyle Group bought $22 billion worth of mortgages for which borrowed more than $20 billion.

http://money.cnn.com/2008/03/11/news/companies/carlyle.ap/index.htm?section=money_latest

[gratuitous]

17. The only time a Republican shows any creativity at all

The only time a Republican shows any creativity at all is when it's time to deflect blame or escape responsibility. Yeah, all those young homebuyers were just preying on the likes of Countrywide and Bear Stearns. If those grannies who were freezing so eagerly could bring down Enron, it stands to reason in the Republican mind that all of the Big Shitpile debt being shuffled around among banks, lenders and hedge funds was surely a grand scheme cooked up by someone or a group of someones trying to buy their first homes.

Turn this guy out, Arizona.