Menendez warns Bush not to use N.J. as a photo op
By EditorPresident Bush will visit New Jersey today, speaking in Freehold to tout a new mortgage hotline. But U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez says Bush should have joined him a year ago when he began sounding “alarm bells on the housing crisis.”
“For more than a year, this tsunami of foreclosures has washed away the American dream for millions. The president has bent over backward to stabilize Wall Street, but he has never exerted much effort on helping the homeowners on Main Street,” said Menendez, a member of the Senate Banking Committee. “Homeowners across the country are drowning in out-of-control mortgage payments. The president must finally realize that their dire situation not only threatens to take away the American Dream from millions, it also has a direct effect on property values, on the credit crisis and on our entire slumping economy.
Menendez says he hopes Bush’s visit isn’t just a photo op.
“I would hope that the president is in New Jersey to finally announce a new broader-based, farther-reaching initiative to buoy homeowners who houses are slipping away. I would hope he is here to finally endorse some of the housing bills in Congress that his Republican colleagues have refused to support. What American homeowners can’t afford is just another photo-op or more baby steps.”
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Silly Rhetoric
What silly rhetoric. A bunch of people ttok out loans they knew they couldnt pay to buy homes they couldnt afford. Now the rest of us are expected to bail them out? What an idiot.
Mr Detector.
Of course people should pay for loans that they willingly sign for. However, there is the "American Dream." Lenders are not just sitting in offices waiting for people to get loans. This is an active attempt to to influence people to own a home. It's too bad the pitch by the lenders wasn't ever recorded. There is fantasy by the borrower and cunning by the lender.
All photo-ops
in NJ are reserved for Sen. Lautenberg.
Solid point - Awful choice of words
I agree with where Bobbo's coming from on this one, but somebody's gotta slap his press office for comparing the mortgage crisis to a tsunami. Next thing you know, they'll be talking about the housing market in terms of Hiroshima.
Who Cares?
Is Bob Menendez still running against George W. Bush?
The fact is Bush is gone in less than a year, but the Dems will continue running on him wayyyy past that. I bet Bob Menendez in 2012 will still be saying how he opposed the war from the start, like it's even relevant now, and how the Dems have to keep raising taxes because of Bush, years after he is gone. Hell, aren't the state Dems still running on what Christie Whitman did?
One of the comments above me is exactly right. While I wouldn't know how to fix the housing mess, the government shouldn't have to be everybody's mommy and daddy and bail them out by throwing a ton of money at them because they made a stupid decision to take a lend they couldn't pay off. It's mostly their fault while the lenders certaintly took advantage of it, but people still need to be responsible for their own damn actions. I wouldn't take a loan on anything unless I was absolutely sure I could pay it off.
I fear if the gov. does bail people out and throw money at them like Clinton and Obama want to do then it will just be another step towards having everyone rely on the gov. to fix their problems and yet somehow be fiscally responsible.
Do Democrats understand in the concept of personal responsibility at all?
Do Democrats understand the concept of personal responsibility?
I wonder if David Sambol and Angelo Mozilo are Democrats?
Bob has a dream!
VP on Hillary's ticket. Dream on Bob.
I actually agree with Menendez on this one.
Its not to often that I agree with Democrats, but this time I whole heartedly agree. The problem people have is that they insist on trying to live way above their means. I cannot tell you how many times I would roll up in front of a million dollar home, to tow their car, and guess what? Milk Crates in the living room, with the TV on the floor.
You'd be surprised how many people portray the image that they are rich, with 2 BMW's in the driveway, some HUGE jungle gym in the back yard next to an inground pool, but are broke as all hell once you step through the threshold of their front door.
I don't feel for these people, who have 50,000 in credit card debt, but insist on taking 2 vacations a year, and then cry that they cannot afford their property taxes.
What really nerves me though is that all my life I have been working class poor, but not once asked for a government handout in terms of welfare or housing assistance. Yet it really befuddles me when I see a mid 40's year old woman, wearing a fur coat, driving a Mercedes Benz, but she uses FOOD STAMPS to purchase her food at A&P. (I see this woman regularly, and trust me, with her Hair Done, Nails Done, gold rings on her fingers, she sure isn't poor).
The only downside to all these wannabe wealthy goons is that when they all lose their homes (like they tend to do as of late) they end up taking all the cheap apartments around the area, thus making it next to nearly impossible to find affordable housing.
+1 to Menendez for serving King George notice that we're watching him.
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