Dick Armey — Everywhere!
January 29th, 2008 by Peter SudermanHere’s FreedomWorks chairman Dick Armey reacting to a proposed change in bankruptcy law that’s intended to calm subprime fears in the Wall Street Journal this morning:
Politicians are always willing — if not quite qualified — to play the role of economic savior. And with fresh bad news about the economy coming out regularly, there are plenty of would-be saviors auditioning for the role.
Some of their proposals are serious reforms. Others are Keynesian-inspired, more silly than harmful. But too many are dangerous ideas that would undermine recovery and do long-term harm to both homeowners and our general prosperity.
One of the most dangerous proposals is now moving through the House of Representatives. The Emergency Home Ownership and Mortgage Equity Protection Act was voted out of the Judiciary Committee recently. It takes aim at Chapter 13 bankruptcy proceedings to make it easier for buyers to rewrite the terms of their mortgage contracts in court. It would do this by changing how a debtor’s principal residence is treated in bankruptcy, allowing mortgage contracts to be modified by the courts.
In short, if this bill becomes law a mortgage would no longer be a matter between a borrower and a lender, but instead, between a borrower, a lender and a judge. Rather than interpreting private contracts, judges would suddenly be able to rewrite them.
Read the whole thing.
Armey’s also got a short response to last night’s State of the Union over at NRO. Here’s how it starts:
America’s attention has turned to the economy, and President Bush described the right path to continued economic growth and prosperity: tax relief, expanded free trade, ending junk lawsuits, and ending wasteful spending in Congress.
In particular, the president did a good job making the case for permanent tax relief and for pro-market, pro-consumer health-care reform. I loved his declaration against higher taxes: “If any bill raises taxes reaches my desk, I will veto it.” But the president also missed the mark on some of the details on earmarks, the stimulus, and the housing situation.
More here.
January 29th, 2008 at 1:33 pm
This is hilarious. This wouldn’t even be necessary were it not for the disastrous bankruptcy law passed a few years back which none of you wrote about. (Hmmm…any of you guys on the right ever filed for bankruptcy?) The change in the law is designed to help the banks, not just the consumers, btw.
And the whole alarmist thing about contracts is just stupid. ALL contracts are LEGAL DOCUMENTS subject to interpretation BY THE COURT and can ALL be rewritten after judicial review.
Peter, your posts are routinely disappointing. This is an economics policy blog and you don’t appear to even understand basic economics. You just spit back whatever Dick Armey’s saying that day, whether he’s right or wrong. Partisan politics at its worst, Peter.
January 29th, 2008 at 2:35 pm
You’re missing the point(s) Sickle. These guys are part of the crew that believes that one of the key functions of govt. is to merely *enforce* contracts, period. No interpretation or modification allowed in their minds. They also routinely spit out whatever Armey sez…cuz this is basically his website, period. I agree that the bankrupcy law that was passed by the GOP Congress was bad.
January 29th, 2008 at 3:12 pm
Hey where’d the post about Measure D in California go? Why did it get deleted?
January 29th, 2008 at 3:19 pm
Seriously, was it something I said? I was just wondering what Freedomworks connection to Wayne Lusvardi was…
January 29th, 2008 at 3:36 pm
Well, last time I’m gonna mention this, but it is SERIOUSLY bad blog etiquette to scrub a post without explaining why. Your Measure D support is all over the FreedomWorks website, so I don’t understand why you had to delete the blog post about it. If I said something odd in comments, you could’ve just deleted the comment you didn’t like, which is far more usual in these situations. And since there’s no contact info for Brendan I can’t ask him directly.
So one more time before I drop it: Why did you pull the post on Measure D?
January 30th, 2008 at 12:08 am
Isn’t it obvious by now that no one running this website is listening to any of the comments? LOL…
January 30th, 2008 at 7:19 pm
I’m also guessing that they realized it wasn’t a good idea to have a paid political campaign ad on this kind of a website…