Romney, Federalism and The Mortgage Foreclosure Crisis
Yesterday, Mitt Romney said:
"Don’t try to stop the foreclosure process. Let it run its course and hit the bottom," Romney said when asked what he would do to jump-start the floundering housing market. "Allow investors to buy homes, put renters in them, fix the homes up and let it turn around and come back up," he continued. "The Obama administration has slow walked the foreclosure process ... that has long existed and as a result we still have a foreclosure overhang."
(Emphasis supplied.) This is likely a political problem for Romney but it is also wrong as a factual matter. Indeed, Romney notes in his next sentence that HAMP was "inadequate." Obviously the Obama Administration "slow walked" nothing. Apparently, "states rights" federalism is only important to Republicans when they are trying to destroy the social safety net. When federalism interferes with the interests of Wall Street, then it is a bad thing. Consider today's ruling from the highest court in Massachusetts on "the process that has long existed:"
We agree with the judge that the [the plaintiff banks], who were not the original mortgagees, failed to make the required showing that they were the holders of the mortgages at the time of foreclosure. As a result, they did not demonstrate that the foreclosure sales were valid to convey title to the subject properties, and their requests for a declaration of clear title were properly denied.
State rights federalism will seem less important to the GOP on this issue I bet. Also too, so much for adherence to "strict construction" and "the rule of law" from the GOP:
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