Obama’s Plan Calls to Keep People in Their Homes
U.S. Sen. Barack Obama, in Española, New Mexico today, gave a speech on the economy and called for the passage of a plan that would help struggling families stay in their homes. NDN President Simon Rosenberg and NDN Globalization Initiative Chair Dr. Robert J. Shapiro called yesterday for just such an action. NDN applauds Senator Obama for his bold plan to address the underlying factors in the financial crisis and his strong understanding of both the moral and economic cases for keeping struggling Americans in their homes.
From Obama’s speech today:
The events of the past few days have made clear that we need to do more right now. We do not have time for commissions and we can’t afford to lurch back and forth between positions when dealing with an economic crisis, like my opponent has. That is why I am calling on the Treasury and the Federal Reserve to use their emergency authorities to maintain the flow of credit, to support the availability of mortgages, and to ensure that our financial system is well-capitalized. Tomorrow I will be convening a meeting with my top economic advisors to discuss a plan based on the ideas I’ve been talking about with former Fed Chairman Paul Volcker and other advisors of mine. Then I’ll call for the passage of a Homeowner and Financial Support Act that would establish a more stable and permanent solution than the daily improvisations that have characterized policy-making over the last year. Specifically, it would accomplish three primary goals.
First, it will provide capital to the financial system. Second, it will provide liquidity to enable our financial markets to function. And third, it will do what I’ve been calling for since I supported legislation on it early last spring, which is to get serious about helping struggling families to re-structure their mortgages on more affordable terms so they can stay in their homes. We’ve made a good start but we need to do much, much more. We cannot forget that there are many homeowners who are in crisis through no fault of their own, and a solution that does not have them at its core is no solution at all.
- Jake Berliner's blog
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