From the "You're Not Going to Believe This?" Department

The next chapter in our government's surreal efforts to redo (fix) the mortgage industry has just been written; there is a new home loan refinance bill that has just been introduced by U.S. Rep. Dennis Cardozo (D - CA). The bill (HR 6218) is titled The Housing Opportunity and Mortgage Equity (HOME) Act --- maybe it should be called; The ReFi's for Everybody Act! The bill would make all loans backed by US Government Agencies (FannieMae, FreddieMac, FHA and VA) subject to be refinanced into new 30 Year Fixed Rate Loans at prevailing market rates (currently around 4.250%) on the basis of the following loan program guidelines and underwriting requirements: Stated Income --- No Documentation Stated Asset --- No Verification Stated Value --- No Appraisal Stated Credit --- No Credit Report This would probably encompass around 50 million loans and could possibly be viewed as the greatest SUB-PRIME loan program of all time. I mean, come on guys, haven't you been trying to outlaw "liar-loans and no-doc loans" for the past several years? We now have a Democratic Congressman, from a state (California) with an unbelievable and apparently unmanageable budget deficit, introducing a bill to take us back to the very mortgage financing environmant that, according to Congress, succeeded in bringing us to the brink of financial ruin. I'm not kidding, I'm being serious; this is NOT a joke, this is for real! I just don't get it? Am I missing something? What do you guys think?