The essence of the inescapably insane logic confronted by Capt. Joseph Yossarian in Catch-22 was that if he didn't want to be killed he had to be sane and since he was technically sane he had to continue to insanely risk his life. Catch-22′s in the Obama administration may not necessarily involve life and death situations but they are nevertheless comparably insane.
Under duress from the new, business-friendly Republican majority in the House and from one of his nemeses, the United States Chamber of Commerce, the business-unfriendly president has ordered a review of regulations that place "unreasonable burdens on business," regulatory burdens the USCC has labeled a "tsunami."
So far, so good. Less government always means better government, as Jefferson believed.
Then, lest he erode his leftist support which would much prefer the government control and conduct all business in America, the president dropped his catch-22 executive order bombshell which seeks "the right balance." That balance between the tsunami of government regulations and a free market would necessitate more government regulations.
While vowing "to remove outdated regulations that stifle job creation and make our economy less competitive," which overlap and are "just plain dumb," he also admitted that new regulations will be needed to, umm, regulate the lack of regulation.
Why it has taken Obama over two years to notice that stifling, overlapping, and dumbness wasn't made very clear.
President Obama's Democrats, the reputed Party of the Common Man, which just happens to have far more common man multi-millionaires in Congress than does the aristocratic Republican Party, always have our common backs and they clearly had our backs and homes in mind when they were dealing with the banking/mortgage crisis.
As CNSNews.com reports, "In February 2009, the Treasury Department announced that by modifying troubled home mortgages-i.e., reducing the monthly mortgage payments to 31 percent of their gross monthly income-the Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) would help 3- to 4-million homeowners who were experiencing trouble paying off their home loans."
Again, if we overlook the feds' further intrusion into America's banking after largely causing the mortgage crisis, all well and good.
Then comes that ever-pesky catch-22. The government giveth and the government taketh away: "Under President Obama's program intended to help struggling homeowners avoid losing their property, more borrowers have had their trial reduced payment loans cancelled than have received permanent modifications, according to the Government Accountability Office."
Some tedious but pertinent stats of the many incorporated in that CNS report: "From the beginning of the federal program in April 2009 through November 2010, 1.4 million loan modifications had been made under HAMP on a trial basis, the GAO said. However, of those, 729,000 trial loan payment reductions were cancelled. Fewer than 550,000 were converted to permanently modified loans."
The inexorable bottom line: Most, not all but most, of those mandated mortgage modification offers were extended to people who had bought houses on the cheap. The bitter truth is that, for the most part, they were people totally unqualified as yet to buy into the American Dream of home ownership.
They had foregone the requisites accepted by many Americans of repetitive franks and beans and some personal deprivations in order to save for a home of their own in large part because Barney Frank and Chris Dodd had deemed them "entitled." Obama elaborated on that entitlement by effectively ordering banks to give them another shot at the prize.
Catch-22′s are fairly common in life and we all are Capt. Yossarians on occasion. However, when government gets involved in "Gotchas!" by over-regulating our lives and making promises it can't fulfill it leads to confusion and anger-which may be the ultimate goal of the Obama administration.
Under duress from the new, business-friendly Republican majority in the House and from one of his nemeses, the United States Chamber of Commerce, the business-unfriendly president has ordered a review of regulations that place "unreasonable burdens on business," regulatory burdens the USCC has labeled a "tsunami."
So far, so good. Less government always means better government, as Jefferson believed.
Then, lest he erode his leftist support which would much prefer the government control and conduct all business in America, the president dropped his catch-22 executive order bombshell which seeks "the right balance." That balance between the tsunami of government regulations and a free market would necessitate more government regulations.
While vowing "to remove outdated regulations that stifle job creation and make our economy less competitive," which overlap and are "just plain dumb," he also admitted that new regulations will be needed to, umm, regulate the lack of regulation.
Why it has taken Obama over two years to notice that stifling, overlapping, and dumbness wasn't made very clear.
President Obama's Democrats, the reputed Party of the Common Man, which just happens to have far more common man multi-millionaires in Congress than does the aristocratic Republican Party, always have our common backs and they clearly had our backs and homes in mind when they were dealing with the banking/mortgage crisis.
As CNSNews.com reports, "In February 2009, the Treasury Department announced that by modifying troubled home mortgages-i.e., reducing the monthly mortgage payments to 31 percent of their gross monthly income-the Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) would help 3- to 4-million homeowners who were experiencing trouble paying off their home loans."
Again, if we overlook the feds' further intrusion into America's banking after largely causing the mortgage crisis, all well and good.
Then comes that ever-pesky catch-22. The government giveth and the government taketh away: "Under President Obama's program intended to help struggling homeowners avoid losing their property, more borrowers have had their trial reduced payment loans cancelled than have received permanent modifications, according to the Government Accountability Office."
Some tedious but pertinent stats of the many incorporated in that CNS report: "From the beginning of the federal program in April 2009 through November 2010, 1.4 million loan modifications had been made under HAMP on a trial basis, the GAO said. However, of those, 729,000 trial loan payment reductions were cancelled. Fewer than 550,000 were converted to permanently modified loans."
The inexorable bottom line: Most, not all but most, of those mandated mortgage modification offers were extended to people who had bought houses on the cheap. The bitter truth is that, for the most part, they were people totally unqualified as yet to buy into the American Dream of home ownership.
They had foregone the requisites accepted by many Americans of repetitive franks and beans and some personal deprivations in order to save for a home of their own in large part because Barney Frank and Chris Dodd had deemed them "entitled." Obama elaborated on that entitlement by effectively ordering banks to give them another shot at the prize.
Catch-22′s are fairly common in life and we all are Capt. Yossarians on occasion. However, when government gets involved in "Gotchas!" by over-regulating our lives and making promises it can't fulfill it leads to confusion and anger-which may be the ultimate goal of the Obama administration.
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