More empty rhetoric

The Wall Street Journal reports that Barack Obama spread more populist manure over the crowd in Georgia today;

…Barack Obama filled out his policy stance on personal bankruptcies, saying he would make it easier for homeowners devastated by illness or other such hardships to keep their houses during periods of insolvency.

The expected Democratic nominee said people wiped out by massive medical payments, military disaster victims, members on extended leave and elderly homeowners would all benefit from the policy, which would waive onerous bureaucratic steps required to file for personal bankruptcy and establish a financial floor to allow such people to retain their home equity.

Sounds nice doesn’t it? There’s plenty of blood and tragedy to scare people into clapping like lunatics. That’s what his writers do best – make up scary stories. Except that there are already federal and community agencies that do all of that for people. There are not-for-profit organizations that do that. There are for-profit companies that do that. But Obama just needs a bloody shirt to wave at the crowd.

In doing so, Sen. Obama took a swipe at rival John McCain, who supported the last revamp of bankruptcy laws in 2005. Sen. Obama, who opposed that revamp, called it a sop to special interests.

“While I was opposing the credit card industry’s bankruptcy bill that made it harder for working families to climb out of debt, [Sen. McCain] was supporting it – and he even opposed helping families who were only in bankruptcy because of medical bills they couldn’t pay,” Sen. Obama told a crowd at a townhall event outside of Atlanta. “He sided with the big banks again when it came to protecting the most valuable possession that older Americans have – their home.”

Well, the proposals that Obama is making are unfunded mandates to business. The revamped bankruptcy laws drove interest rates to record lows because lenders took less risk when they made a loan. If government forces more risk on lenders, the only people who’ll get hurt are low-income borrowers who’ll pay higher interest rates if they get any loans at all. What’ll Obama do then? Well, he’ll mandate high risk loans at lower interest rates – and then ALL borrowers will pay for that risk with across-the-board interest rate hikes.

Leftism isn’t about helping up the poor, it’s about spreading out the misery equally.

Category: Barack Obama/Joe Biden, Economy, Politics