There is a particular type of headline that runs about every three months. A version ran in the June 16 edition of the Wall Street Journal – “High Default Rates Forecast On Modified Loans”. What it means is every time someone reviews a liberal federal program, this one named HAMP, they conclude it isn’t working. That’s why it’s a repeat headline.
Basically like most liberal solutions to most problems, HAMP involves establishing a new federal department with a new federal budget to address problems not defined within the constitutional scope of the federal government. And like most liberal solutions, other than creating a lot of feel-good employment positions and power bases for themselves, more harm than good is accomplished. Were that not so, the problems would be resolved and the budget deficit would be shrinking.
It almost doesn’t matter which program or which department. They’re all bloated, over reaching, and corrupt. Unfortunately the people that keep coming up with costly bad ideas that don’t work are the same people that have the power to vote for them. Not so coincidentally, they also usually benefit personally from them as well. Money, political favor, and power always moves towards them. It’s like a private party inside the mansion. We can hear it, but we’re not invited in to see what‘s going on.
The Affordable Home Modification Program, or HAMP, is using $75 billion of TARP money, never to be seen again, to accomplish nothing. It is described officially as a “taxpayer funded program that “incentivizes” (liberals love words like this) mortgage companies to lower mortgage payments and renegotiate rates.” That the program is being administered by Fannie Mae should tell you all you need to know. That fact alone all but guarantees it will be slow, ineffective, and fiscally reckless. And it is.
The “Report on HAMP by the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform,” in it’s February 2010 review, summed things up this way: “By every empirical measure HAMP has failed”. Sold to Congress and the American people as a program to reach 3 to 4 million homeowners, by the end of January only 375,000 applications were in the works. That’s less than 1/30th of the original goal.
The numbers and the results get worse with each new report. As of 3-24-10 only 168,708 applications were made permanent. Now with June’s figures it is expected that 65 to 75 percent of those are going to fall back into default. Nothing about the program at all is successful. It has simply increased the reach of the federal government and its ability to waste taxpayer money. Ironically, liberals consider that a success.
Why did the program fail? Because it flew in the face of common sense. If the financial and housing markets collapsed as a result of bad loans, propping up more bad loans is probably not a very workable long-term solution. Just like TARP, the wheelers and dealers were financially covered with taxpayer bucks for their losses and rewarded with new guaranteed government business for their recklessness. If you look at the names of the TARP recipients, those allowed settlements to end fraud allegations, and those knee deep in the HAMP funding program, the names will match. The TARP gang rides again.
What does HAMP and TARP do? They “dump” on America. It’s a game to the academically indoctrinated professional government wannabe who is private sector productively challenged . They abuse constitutional trust and delegated powers to experiment, with the risks always born by the people but the profits and benefits always skimmed off the top by them.
As we continue to wallow in failed programs like HAMP and stagger nationally under unsustainable debt the Democratic machinery will continue to spin success stories. In reality HAMP is just another very dark political man-made cloud.
We can either stop funding these dark clouds, or get ready for a flood.
About the author
William Burton wrote 26 articles on this blog.
A political junkie with a home spun view of politics, passionately conservative. Published writer (short stories, political essays, poems), and public speaker. Profiled in, "The Ridiculous Race" by Steve Heely.
HAMP Dumps On Taxpayers
There is a particular type of headline that runs about every three months. A version ran in the June 16 edition of the Wall Street Journal – “High Default Rates Forecast On Modified Loans”. What it means is every time someone reviews a liberal federal program, this one named HAMP, they conclude it isn’t working. That’s why it’s a repeat headline.
Basically like most liberal solutions to most problems, HAMP involves establishing a new federal department with a new federal budget to address problems not defined within the constitutional scope of the federal government. And like most liberal solutions, other than creating a lot of feel-good employment positions and power bases for themselves, more harm than good is accomplished. Were that not so, the problems would be resolved and the budget deficit would be shrinking.
It almost doesn’t matter which program or which department. They’re all bloated, over reaching, and corrupt. Unfortunately the people that keep coming up with costly bad ideas that don’t work are the same people that have the power to vote for them. Not so coincidentally, they also usually benefit personally from them as well. Money, political favor, and power always moves towards them. It’s like a private party inside the mansion. We can hear it, but we’re not invited in to see what‘s going on.
The Affordable Home Modification Program, or HAMP, is using $75 billion of TARP money, never to be seen again, to accomplish nothing. It is described officially as a “taxpayer funded program that “incentivizes” (liberals love words like this) mortgage companies to lower mortgage payments and renegotiate rates.” That the program is being administered by Fannie Mae should tell you all you need to know. That fact alone all but guarantees it will be slow, ineffective, and fiscally reckless. And it is.
The “Report on HAMP by the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform,” in it’s February 2010 review, summed things up this way: “By every empirical measure HAMP has failed”. Sold to Congress and the American people as a program to reach 3 to 4 million homeowners, by the end of January only 375,000 applications were in the works. That’s less than 1/30th of the original goal.
The numbers and the results get worse with each new report. As of 3-24-10 only 168,708 applications were made permanent. Now with June’s figures it is expected that 65 to 75 percent of those are going to fall back into default. Nothing about the program at all is successful. It has simply increased the reach of the federal government and its ability to waste taxpayer money. Ironically, liberals consider that a success.
Why did the program fail? Because it flew in the face of common sense. If the financial and housing markets collapsed as a result of bad loans, propping up more bad loans is probably not a very workable long-term solution. Just like TARP, the wheelers and dealers were financially covered with taxpayer bucks for their losses and rewarded with new guaranteed government business for their recklessness. If you look at the names of the TARP recipients, those allowed settlements to end fraud allegations, and those knee deep in the HAMP funding program, the names will match. The TARP gang rides again.
What does HAMP and TARP do? They “dump” on America. It’s a game to the academically indoctrinated professional government wannabe who is private sector productively challenged . They abuse constitutional trust and delegated powers to experiment, with the risks always born by the people but the profits and benefits always
skimmed off the top by them.
As we continue to wallow in failed programs like HAMP and stagger nationally under unsustainable debt the Democratic machinery will continue to spin success stories. In reality HAMP is just another very dark political man-made cloud.
We can either stop funding these dark clouds, or get ready for a flood.
About the author
William Burton wrote 26 articles on this blog.
A political junkie with a home spun view of politics, passionately conservative. Published writer (short stories, political essays, poems), and public speaker. Profiled in, "The Ridiculous Race" by Steve Heely.
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