Arkady's Thoughts

I must say that the GOP has been a massive disappointment for the past 8 or so years, but they are really impressive recently and much of the thanks can be given to Obama whose magical powers include spinal reconstruction. Specifically Eric Cantor the Republican whip, credited with rallying the House GOP against the Stimulus bill, has with John Boehner posed several questions for Obama. I personally see this bill flying through as too many Republicans are obsessed with stopping the housing meltdown at whatever cost, but I am happy to see them get vocal. Aim is to spend 75 billion to shore up 9 million mortgages in an effort to thwart our country from the continuing housing meltdown. Courtesy of CNN, here are the questions. • What will your plan do for the over 90 percent of homeowners who are playing and paying by the rules? • Does your plan compensate banks for bad mortgages they should have never made in the first place? • Will individuals who misrepresented their income or asset

Today is the much anticipated unveiling of the Obama's administration to stem the foreclosures, a development I will be watching very closely. As of now the price tag is coming in at 75 Billion, which after the gargantuan pork monstrosity does not seem like a high number. The basic principle is to save people who are now holding mortgages they can no longer pay, most likely ARMs whose rates have jumped. Due to housing values dropping and equities vanishing a lot of the people are stuck in houses and have no ability to refinance. The plan as of now calls for 50 Billion from existing bailout money, although it is unclear as to which bailout we are talking about. For example the stimulus package allocates over 13 billion to section 8 housing, public housing and low-incoming housing, so will this be an additional 50B more? Or will this be coming from TARP? If it's coming from TARP, then this certainly violates the original principle behind the program - that is to shore up banks an