I'm guessing No, since big-bank representative Paul Volcker doesn't want it, and Obama offers only weak tea on it, even though the American people support it (and it's good policy). Via Housing Wire:
Illinois Senator and Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama’s proposal to fix the housing market is a four-pronged plan to “protect homeownership and crack down on mortgage fraud,” according to his campaign Web site.
He promises to create a 10 percent universal mortgage credit — an average of $500 for 10 million homeowners — to homeowners who don’t itemize their tax deductions. Obama’s campaign also promises to increase government action in preventing mortgage fraud, saying that he wants to “ensure more accountability in the subprime mortgage industry.” (That, of course, might require the existence of a subprime lending industry, which has largely imploded amid a burgeoning economic crisis.) ...
The Democratic presidential hopeful also said he would look to allow so-called cram-downs of mortgage debt in personal bankruptcies...
Critics, however, say that while Obama’s plan is geared to prevent fraudulent loans in the future, it does not offer specific aid to homeowners already struggling with bad loans. “Obama continues to promise that everything will get better once he is president, but does not explain how his programs and governing philosophy will adjust to new economic realities,” the New York Times’ Patrick Healy wrote Wednesday.
Although McCain’s plan essentially reiterated language in the current $700 billion rescue legislation, it addresses specific actions by the government to buy and rewrite bad mortgages to aid the struggling housing market, rather than the more general “encouragement” included in the Act itself.
While largely panned [since the press has called the election already] since it was first introduced, a study by Rasmussen Reports found on Friday that 52 percent of voters supported McCain’s plan to bail out mortgage holders, with just 35 percent opposed to it. Interestingly, the study found stronger support for McCain’s proposal among Democrats than Republicans, as well.
Well, sure. But what does the Democratic base have to do with anything?
They're probably all, er, Appalachians, so who cares?
Of course, Obama could always surprise me! You never can tell!
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Do we call and write again?
Did Obama listen?
Are There Homeowners Who Don't Itemize Their Taxes?
Because that's one of the biggest benefits of home ownership - giving most people a chance to itemize their taxes who otherwise couldn't. It lets you not only deduct your home mortgage interest, but also your state income taxes, property taxes, car taxes, etc. The only people I can think of are people who either don't know to itemize or who don't pay enough interest on their home to qualify, which means probably people who don't pay a lot of taxes to begin with and/or possibly older folks near the end of their mortgage terms. The former won't be helped much by it and the latter aren't who is hurting in this crisis. Or am I missing some other group?
And can I say that I hate how often the Dems, not just Obama, seem to think the solution to every fricking problem is a tax cut or some other "tax" relief. It's the laziest answer in the world - both intellectually and politically.