McCain On Housing Crisis: "I Don't Know How To Pursue That"
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About Jason Linkins
Jason Linkins is a Political Reporter at the Huffington Post, covering media and politics. He's based in Washington, DC. Previously, he wrote for HuffPo's Eat The Press, and has also contributed to DCist and Wonkette.
Presidential hopeful John McCain made an appearance on this morning's Good Morning America, and it was about as rigorous a challenge to McCain as you might expect. Weird assertions? Check: McCain equated his climate change position - which is comparatively progressive for a Republican candidate - with President Bush's position, which is to stonewall environmental efforts at every turn. Insistence that the "Surge" is working? Check: and with no follow-up or challenge of any kind from Diane Sawyer.
But the conversation mainly turned to issues of the economy, specifically, the housing crisis:
SAWYER: So my question is, this morning, this question of irresponsibility, have you read recently some of the language used in the adjustable rate mortgage documents that have been given to Americans who are now in foreclosure trouble?McCAIN: Oh, yeah, and it's terrible. Look. Americans are hurting. Americans are hurting badly. Americans are sitting around the dining room table, the kitchen table, deciding whether they have to have another job, dip into their savings or even lose their home. My point is, there were people who were speculators, people who took advantage, including with those kinds of documents. We can't reward those. But we have to do everything we can to have the lenders and the borrowers sit down in the interest of both parties, people who otherwise would be able to keep their homes and make their mortgage payments be able to do that and facilitate that. And at the same time, have transparency in the global economy, make sure that never again can we do -- have this kind of thing happen, and -- but our first priority is those people who are in danger of losing their home today --
SAWYER: So --
McCAIN: And I think we can have many procedures for doing so. Having lenders and borrowers sit down together and the lending institutions having the ability to provide some relief. Maybe some other incentives for people to stay in their own homes which I'll be presenting in the next few days.
SAWYER: Lenders should be required to give clearer warnings in documents like this, some of the language is incomprehensible.
McCAIN: Sure. It should be one sheet of paper. And big letters at the bottom that say I understand this document. There are people who entered into the contracts that were far more onerous than what they are accountable for. And those people should be punished. People who cashed in hundreds of millions of dollars, I don't think they should be allowed to keep that money. I don't know how to pursue that. I think it's disgraceful when things like that are going on. And American people deserve better.
That's a telling dearth of specifics for a guy whose had a few weeks in the clear now to have cogent answers ready on an issue that's grown dire in his own home state. Lenders and borrowers "sitting down together?" Let's hope that goes better for the borrowers than the last time they got together! And, hey, McCain says "we can have many procedures" for fixing the problem, so it sounds like he's really honed in on a vision - or is honing for the "next few days," anyway. You'd think he'd have had those ready for that "major speech on the economy" he gave days ago.
Anyway, at least he's for larger lettering on bank documents. I doubt that anyone is surprised by that.
[WATCH.]
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April 1, 2008 10:15 AM