Obama Housing Crisis Plan Leaves Much to Be Desired

For a man who tries to pass himself off as the second coming of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, President Barak Obama is sounding more and more like Herbert Clark Hoover. Take, for example, Obama's much-ballyhooed "Economic Stimulus Plan" and its protectionist wording. I call your attention to "Sec. 1605. Use of American Iron, Steel, and Manufactured Goods:"

"(a) None of the funds appropriated or otherwise made available by this Act may be used for a project for the construction, alteration, maintenance, or repair of a public building or public work unless all of the iron, steel, and manufactured goods used in the project are produced in the United States.

...

(d) This section shall be applied in a manner consistent with United States obligations under International agreements."

Can everyone spell "Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act?" How about "trade war?" And, guess what? Smoot-Hawley is still "on the books!" It's sitting right there at 19 U.S.C.§ 1202-1681. It may not have been enforced since the Hoover Administration, but it's still sitting there awaiting the attention of any President who knows everything about "looking good in public" but nothing about economics. If it means a few votes I'm willing to bet that President Barak "Herbert" Obama, and/or Congress, would not hesitate to ignore the above-mentioned "International agreements."

Back in 1932 Herbert Hoover also conned the Congress into establishing something called the Reconstruction Finance Administration, or RFC, whose purpose would be to make loans to private concerns such as banks, railroads, and farm mortgage associations as well as state and municipal governments in order to "create" or "save" jobs. Although it was funded by a then-unprecedented $2 billion in tax money, it was a dismal failure. Would you care to take a guess as to why it failed?

Correct! The RFC killed itself with a combination of incompetent management, political favoritism, and plain old fashioned greed. When all was said and done, the only jobs created by the RFC were FBI agents to investigate charges of political corruption and prison guards to keep an eye on the guilty. But, somehow, I doubt that our incumbent president has ever heard of the RFC.

This brings us back to another "crisis du jour" of the Obama Administration, the "Housing Crisis."

In the course of yet another of his rapidly increasing number of "historic" statements President Obama has announced, using as few details as possible, his "Homeowner Affordability and Stabilization Act." As is the case with other "crisis solutions" proposed by the Barak Obama Administration, it's long on rhetoric and short on details.

This "broad, comprehensive strategy" appears to have no idea of the number of families that it's supposed to be helping (the numbers cited range from 4 million to 9 million). Furthermore, its cost is equally ambiguous (anywhere from $75 billion to $200 billion, depending on which page you happen to be reading at the moment). And then we find this revealing tidbit:

"The $200 billion in funding commitments are being made under the Housing and Economic Recovery Act and do not use any money from the Financial Stability Plan or Emergency Economic Stabilization Act/TARP.(Emphasis in the original)

Let me translate that for you: "The Homeowner Affordability and Stabilization Act" (also known as the "Barak Obama Fulfilling His Unrealistic Campaign Promises by Spending the Country into a Black Hole Act of 2009") is going to cost somewhere between $75 and $200 billion more, on top of the ~ $800 billion already approved by Congress!

A few months ago I posted an essay entitled "Is the National News Media Setting Up Barak Obama to be a Failure?" I can answer that question with a negative, because he seems to be doing a pretty good job of failing without requiring any assistance from outside sources. Come to think of it, in his day Herbert Hoover didn't need much help either.

Mark Twain was right: "History doesn't repeat itself, but it certainly echoes."