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Hey, John McCain: Where’s the Plan to Save Our Homes? |
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Margaret Priebe, communications director at the Cincinnati AFL-CIO Labor Council, sends us this report.
As cold rain turned into blistering snow, a large group of union members from the Cincinnati AFL-CIO Labor Council and allies rallied outside a campaign event in Cincinnati for Sen. John McCain this morning with a critical question for the senator: Where’s the plan?
This group of some 50 working people rallied to bring attention to McCain’s “do-nothing” policy on foreclosures that are affecting thousands of working families in Ohio, a state with 153,196 home foreclosure filings in 2007—88 percent more than in 2006. The past two days in Ohio, McCain offered nothing but campaign platitudes and empty rhetoric to address the growing housing crisis. Meanwhile, greedy subprime lenders are forcing families out of their homes daily—more than 12,000 Cincinnati working families have had the American Dream stolen from them by greedy corporate subprime lenders in the last year alone. What’s John McCain’s response? Do nothing.
As in Cleveland, where union activists gathered yesterday to expose McCain’s inaction on our housing crisis, Cincinnati has been among the nation’s communities hardest hit by mortgage foreclosures. In fact, even though McCain was in Washington, D.C., earlier this month at the time of the Senate vote on the $148 billion economic stimulus package, he skipped the vote.
Doug Sizemore, executive secretary-treasurer of the Cincinnati AFL-CIO Labor Council, said:
It is hard to believe that a presidential candidate would come to Ohio without a plan to address the home foreclosure crisis that is devastating working families. Ohio had over 153,000 foreclosure filings in 2007, this is only one more example of how out of touch Senator McCain is with main street America.
McCain’s “do-nothing” response to the housing crisis shows where his priorities are—with his corporate funders, not working families. McCain has more bundlers from the real estate and commercial banking industry than any other candidate, including the CEO of Wachovia. He’s raised more than $6 million from the finance, insurance and real estate industries. He’s showing working families every day that his economic proposals mirror those of our current president—and working people know how that’s turned out. The rich get richer and the rest get nothing.
Added Sizemore:
A McCain presidency would be nothing more than a third term for George W. Bush.
We deserve better. We deserve leaders who will stand up to corporate interests and stand on the side of working families. We deserve fresh vision and new direction, not more of the same failed policies that got us into this mess in the first place.
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Paid for by the AFL-CIO Committee on Political Education Political Contributions Committee, www.aflcio.org, and not authorized by any candidate or candidate’s committee.
6 Comments
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The reason there is a housing crisis is because homeowners spent their equity and now owe more than the house is worth or bought a house they really couldn’t afford thanks to easy loans. When you live on the edge financially any little ripple can change the whole cash flow. I know because it happened to me and now I live in an apartment. There were plenty of lenders with loans to fit my desire to upgrade. The lenders don’t care they make the loan and sell it to somebody else in 6 months and they all get a cut. I don’t support any bail out for homeowners they all knew what the risk was just like I did, the mortgage industry just made it easy. This country needs to stop the entitlement mentality because the government can’t afford the entitlements it already has. It’s time to start taking some personal responsibility for our actions and quit looking to the government for answers.
There is no reason the government should bail out homeowners who mortgaged their homes and now can’t pay. They entered into a valid contract betting on the come rather than budgeting wisely. They took out more debt than they could pay. That is not the fault of the lender. This shows me that the labor unions have done a poor job of educating their memebrs in financial manners.
Poor folks in Ohio loved George Bush when he ran for re-election.
Guess they are getting their reward now by losing their homes.
One thing about this administration, the spell DEPRESSION —— Recession. Herbert Hoover and George Bush, perfect together.
Amen to “the door” and “moondog1″! Why does the Cincinnati AFL-CIO Labor Council think that people who borrowed more than they could afford, eyes wide open, deserve to be bailed out, when the predictable trouble comes, by people who manage prudently?
The real shame in all this is that the foreclosures are impacting entire neighborhoods. When houses in your neighborhood go into foreclosure your house’s value declines. Not only are those who are losing their homes suffering but so are their neighbors. And a lot of this misfortune is the result of people throwing caution to the wind and buying homes they know deep down they can’t afford. I saw a story on the news last night about a family earning $79,000 a year are losing their $330,000 house because they can no longer afford the mortgage. It has jumped from $1300 per month to $3300. Now I don’t claim to be a genius and I’m only a high school graduate but even I know that a $1300 mortgage payment on a $79.000 yearly income is unrealistic. These people were undoubtedly struggling to make that payment before the interest rates went up! And I resent my tax dollars going to bail out people who chose to live way beyond their means and are now suffering the consequences. Perhaps if these folks eventually find themselves in a position to buy a new home they’ll consider one that’s a little more in their price range.
I understand what you’re saying. However, a $1300/mortgage payment while earning $79,000 year is workable. When it ballooned up to $3300 is when it became untenable. You might have meant $3300 further down in your comment.