McCain Flip-Flopped On Mortgage Crisis

In the second presidential debates John McCain said the government should buy up bad mortgates to allow people to stay in their homes. 

“You know that home values of retirees continues to decline and people are no longer able to afford their mortgage payments. As president of the United States, Alan, I would order the secretary of the treasury to immediately buy up the bad home loan mortgages in America and renegotiate at the new value of those homes — at the diminished value of those homes and let people be able to make those — be able to make those payments and stay in their homes.”

This sounds like a Democratic position, and a new one for McCain, who previously had a very different view.  As recently as March 25, in a speech to the Orange County Hispanic Small Business Roundtable, McCain said:

“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.”

And he added:

:”I will not play election year politics with the housing crisis.”

He seemed to be blaming homeowners for borrowing too much:

“So many homeowners have found themselves owing more than their home is worth, because many never had much equity in the house to begin with. When conditions return to normal, GSEs (Government Sponsored Enterprises) should never insure loans when the homeowner clearly does not have skin in the game.”

And for the record, the “my friends” count was 19.

By: Alan

Alan Colmes is the publisher of Liberaland.