Daily Real Estate News | March 28, 2008Obama Criticizes McCain on Housing Plan
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) has come under fire from Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) for his lack of a plan for stabilizing the housing market.
A day after McCain said in a speech that the government should not reward lenders and home owners for their poor decisions, Obama said the presidential hopeful's approach to the mortgage crisis would result in millions of people losing their homes and would mimic the strategy the Bush administration has pursued the past eight years.
"It's the idea that government has no role at all in solving the challenges facing working families -- that all we can do is hand out tax breaks for the wealthiest few and let the chips fall where they may," Obama said during a campaign stop in Greensboro, N.C., on March 26.
Obama has proposed the creation of a fund to help home owners avoid foreclosure as well as a new mortgage tax credit.
Meanwhile, McCain said the government should not intervene to bail out banks and borrowers who made poor decisions.
"I have always been committed to the principle that it is not the duty of government to bail out and reward those who act irresponsibly, whether they are big banks or small borrowers," McCain said earlier this week. "Government assistance to the banking system should be based solely on preventing systemic risk that would endanger the entire financial system and the economy."
He said any government assistance to alleviate the housing crisis must be temporary and should be accompanied by reforms that aim to make the system more transparent and accountable to prevent a repeat of the crisis.
Source: Los Angeles Times, Michael Finnegan (03/27/08) and The Associated Press, Liz Sidoti (03/25/08)
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