I have talked a bunch about the housing crunch and its impact on politics. Inevitably the question turns to something like, what can Republicans say or do now to get us out from underneath this issue. Frankly we struggle to find good answers.
Well, Hillary Clinton is announcing her answers. From today’s WSJ:
The latest, Democratic front-runner Hillary Rodham Clinton, is scheduled to unveil today a plan to combat "mortgage lending abuse" — another example of the Democratic Party’s increasing willingness to explore new regulations on business and markets.
The U.S. senator from New York is proposing a package of measures that would impose new disclosure requirements on mortgage brokers and curb their ability to dictate lending terms. Specifically, Mrs. Clinton is planning to say today that she would force brokers to state their fees in plain language, require a full disclosure of monthly tax and insurance costs for subprime loans, and ban prepayment penalties on all home mortgages. This latter proposal could shake up the industry, one analyst said.
In Nevada, where as high as 5 or 10% of the population could be in the middle of foreclosures, that has got to be a good message for targeting swing voters. If I were her, I would buy a list of foreclosed addresses and send those voters her policy announcement. Perhaps hold parts of the roll out in the Southwest, California, and Florida.
Now are Republicans going to come up with answers to this? Or are we going to tie ourselves to the tracks so we can be rolled over?
