September 23, 2008 – (RealEstateRama) — We all agree that the government needs to act swiftly to prevent this crisis from further escalating, but we also need to ensure that as we act, we do no repeat the mistakes of the past—lax oversight by federal agencies and commissions and a continued disdain by this Administration for congressional oversight.
In addition, we must get to the root of the housing crisis and work to keep people in their homes through refinancing; if we don’t, housing prices will continue to freefall and we will still be in a mess.
In California, we have more foreclosures than any other state—in August more than 101,000 Californians received foreclosure notices and more than 33,000 lost their homes.
If the American taxpayers come to the rescue in this financial crisis, you have to provide assurances that they aren’t just taking on bad debt and further jeopardizing their future.
In addition, the authority the Administration has asked for is so broad, it could be used to pay outlandish multimillion dollar benefits to the same executives who ran their companies into the ground.
Right now there is a crisis of confidence in the markets which must be restored. To do that we also need to take steps to get the fundamentals of our economy back on track: job creation through infrastructure investment, extension of unemployment benefits, and assistance for home heating.
I understand the need to move swiftly, but we must also move smartly.
The Dodd proposal is moving us in the right direction. I know from my conversation with the Senator that he is intent upon making this a fair package that accomplishes its goals while protecting the American people from a continuation of the greed and irresponsibility that caused this crisis in the first place.
