Party Lines!
Alan Zibel from the Wall Street Journal reports that the house voted Wednesday, “….. to end a government effort to revitalize neighborhoods blighted by the recession and housing crisis.” It is said that the house will also vote to end HAMP, HAFA and one of the other dreamy acronyms that the government has thought up.
Here’s the problem. We have inmates running the asylum. The House will vote these program out, but it’s unlikely that the Senate will. Even if the Senate (that is controlled by the Democrats) voted to abolish the programs, Obama will veto them. This is typical partisan politics where the clones that we send to Washington vote on party lines versus’ voting for what is in the best interest of the country.
Sad but true.
Party Lines!
By Alan Zibel
The House voted Wednesday to end a government effort to revitalize neighborhoods blighted by the recession and housing crisis, with Republicans calling the program unnecessary and wasteful.
The 242-182 vote, mostly on party lines, was the third of four planned this month to end Obama administration initiatives to ease foreclosures and mend troubled neighborhoods. The measures are likely symbolic, as the Democratic-led Senate is unlikely to take them up and President Barack Obama has threatened a veto.
The vote Wednesday would cut off funding for the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s $7 billion Neighborhood Stabilization Program. That effort, created in a bipartisan housing bill passed in 2008, is likely to help fix up 100,000 properties in areas hard-hit by foreclosures, according to HUD.
Republicans called it wasteful and not subject to thorough oversight. Taxpayers are not repaid when blighted homes are fixed up and sold, said Rep. Judy Biggert (R., Ill.). Instead, “the money is treated like a slush fund…it is never returned to the taxpayer,” she said. “We need to stop funding programs that don’t work with money we don’t have.”
Democrats noted that the program is supported by city and local officials around the country. In one part of Indiana, “new businesses have opened and an area in decline has now blossomed again,” said Rep. Andre Carson (D., Ind.).
The vote comes after the House voted last week to end a yet-to-be-launched program to help unemployed homeowners and one to help borrowers refinance if their property values have plunged.
Republicans also plan to vote by the end of the month to eliminate the Obama administration’s flagship foreclosure-prevention program, the Home Affordable Modification Program. They argue that the administration’s housing programs are costly to taxpayers at a time when budget cuts are needed to get the U.S. economy back on track. Republicans also say that the government has failed to prevent many foreclosures and has, in some cases, left homeowners worse off.
Launched nearly two years ago, HAMP has assisted about 540,000 homeowners, far short of initial expectations that it would aid up to 4 million. A congressional panel estimates it will eventually reach as many as 800,000 homeowners.
While GOP lawmakers call the program a waste of money, the Obama administration says it is still benefiting tens of thousands of new borrowers every month.