The Conservative Edge

Just when everyone thought that the foreclosure crisis was easing, new data shows that the housing market remains in turmoil. This has contributed, in part, to the stock market’s recent slide. Investors are concerned that Europe’s financial problems, combined with the United States’ stagnant economy and continuing housing crisis, will delay any global economic recovery.

Here in Ohio, the Dayton Daily News reports that the state is on a record pace for foreclosure filings through the first quarter of 2010. In an eight-county region in southwest Ohio, foreclosures have gone up 8.8% over the same period from last year. The paper blames Ohio’s Republican-controlled Senate, and its failure to pass legislation aimed at helping distressed mortgages. However, there is a federal program that will likely be responsible for giving lenders a green light to seize troubled properties, further accelerating the foreclosure pace.

The HAFA (Home Affordable Foreclosure Alternatives) program that began in April of this year was supposedly designed to alleviate mortgage delinquencies through the short sale process. Borrowers could potentially receive cash bonuses for agreeing to either a short sale or deed-in-lieu-of-foreclosure procedure that would allow lenders to take the troubled property without resorting to foreclosure. That sounds good, in theory. But the reality is, the financial firms that own most of these mortgages aren’t even participating in the HAFA program.

Bank of America recently revealed that mortgages owned by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, as well as FHA/VA mortgages, are not subject to HAFA guidelines. These loans make up the vast majority of home mortgages. As a result, many short sale packages previously submitted to lenders are being rejected, with no new short sale proposals being accepted. This frees lenders to swiftly foreclose on distressed properties with no fear of reprisal from the federal government. Many real estate professionals expect foreclosures to increase dramatically through the rest of this year.

To make matters worse, the federal government, and the Democrats in particular, still seem reluctant to make job creation a top priority. The Labor Department said that the number of mass layoffs (which involves 50 or more people) rose by 228 in the month of April to a total of 1,856. So, despite the notion that an economic recovery is underway, it is clear that manufacturers are continuing to eliminate jobs. This will only aggravate the housing crisis, as more Americans lose their incomes.

Sadly, the Democrats have suggested that their big legislative push is over until the 2010 election. After passing huge bills to reform health care, provide insurance to children, restructure (downsize) auto companies, regulate financial institutions, and increase tobacco taxes, the Democrats now want to take it easy. They are fearful of voter backlash. They forget, however, that voters will be mindful of what the Democrats didn’t do, rather than what they have done to this point. The longer it takes for the Democrats to address job growth, the bigger the backlash will grow.

Blitskrieg. That word comes to mind as I watch the Democrats smash through Constitutional principles in an attempt to establish a new American order. While they have the congressional and presidential advantages, they are fervently implementing their socialist and collectivist ideologies.

The ideas coming into shape are manifold. First, there is an obvious war against personal wealth. In a country that offers the greatest opportunity for an individual to be successful, it is amazing at the number of people who heap the blame for our country’s problems on the wealthy. The liberals have become proponents of this view, seeking to take from the “rich” to give handouts to the poor. The only problem is, wealth is not transferred to the poor—no one can amass any kind of fortune on government stipends. The government, instead, is the beneficiary of its plundering of the wealthy. Not only does the government reap increased revenue for additional spending, but government bureaucrats earn nice salaries and benefits as well.

There is also a grand notion that government is somehow better suited to make our life decisions than we are. The leading congressional Democrats, and the Democratic president, are working in tandem to pass massive amounts of legislation that will give them unprecedented control. They accept no debate or questioning of their actions. They forced a 2,600-page health care bill through Congress, and are now working on a 1,600-page financial overhaul bill. Meanwhile, a revised cap-and-trade bill is being readied for a vote, with Senator Harry Reid circumventing any ordinary committee process that could slow it down.

These bills are designed to give the federal government more control of our lives (and livelihoods), and more reason to increase revenues, also known as taxes. A first analysis of the health care bill, for example, reveals that costs won’t likely decrease as expected. The Associated Press reported that, “Economic experts at the Health and Human Services Department concluded in a report issued Thursday that the health care remake will achieve Obama’s aim of expanding health insurance — adding 34 million to the coverage rolls. But the analysis also found that the law falls short of the president’s twin goal of controlling runaway costs, raising projected spending by about 1 percent over 10 years. That increase could get bigger, since Medicare cuts in the law may be unrealistic and unsustainable, the report warned.”

The Democrats know this. That is why President Obama has spoken of the possibility of a national VAT tax being imposed. Of course, higher taxes and a redistribution of wealth have been the liberals’ prime goals all along. They can only impose taxes after first authorizing massive expenditures like health care, financial reform, and climate change legislation. Meanwhile, Obama has reneged on perhaps the primary campaign promise—reviving the economy. The White House would like to rejoice about a tiny drop in the unemployment rate, but it still remains that there is a record number of people who have been unemployed longer than six months. So much for that “quick jolt” Obama promised.

Perhaps the best response to all of this heavy-handed legislating will come in November. As someone once famously remarked, we should “Throw the bums out!”

Who says that conservatives and liberals can’t agree on anything?

I can’t say that. Not after reading Bob Herbert’s latest column that was published in my local newspaper, the Dayton Daily News. In his piece, Herbert states that the Democrats are in political trouble because they have paid so little attention to America’s economic distress. As I read his column, I wondered if he had been secretly reading my blog.

In case you are unfamiliar with Herbert, you should know that he writes for the New York Times. He also writes from a decidedly liberal perspective. His specialty seems to be economic and social issues, and how government might best resolve those kinds of problems. This blog, The Conservative Edge, has taken the Obama administration to task for reneging on campaign promises to give the economy a “quick jolt.” It took an entire year for Obama to declare that the economy would be his chief concern. And yet, here we are, one-and-a-quarter years into the Obama presidency, and he is still fixated on health care reform. He and the Democrats are gambling their election year prospects by not making job creation a top priority.

Herbert agrees. In fact, here are some of his statements: “Instead of focusing with unwavering intensity on this increasingly tragic situation, making it their top domestic priority, President Barack Obama and the Democrats on Capitol Hill have spent astonishing amounts of time and energy, and most of their political capital, on an obsessive quest to pass a health care bill.”

He further writes: “Health care reform is important. But what the public has wanted and still badly needs above all else from Obama and the Democrats are bold efforts to put people back to work. A major employment rebound is the only real way to alleviate the deep economic anxiety that has gripped so many Americans. Unaddressed, that anxiety will evolve into dread and then anger. But while the nation is desperate for jobs, jobs, jobs, the Democrats have spent most of the Obama era chanting health care, health care, health care.”

So it seems that liberals and conservatives can agree. Even a liberal like Herbert can see the error of Obama’s ways. The only difference is that some of us conservatives saw it first.