What did Bush say at Olson Fundraiser?

Check back on the blog in a bit!  We'll have the scoop on what President Bush said during the Pete Olson Fundraiser on Friday. 

Comments

[BIG LIZZY]

Bush has been drunk since the day he took office.

[David C.]

Bush did not tell everyone to go out and over spend on their house. When you buy a variable rate mortgage you should first know that you couldn't have afforded this house without it. Secondly, that mortgage will eventually see it's interest rate go up. Don't blame Bush or Wall Street on a lack of common sense. Blame your Momma and Pappa.

[Ann S.]

Don't the banks have a responsibility to make certain that the lendee has the ability to PAY the adjusted rate? It does not make sound business sense to make a loan that you know cannot be paid back. But, if you get the house back and find some unfortunate NEW buyer you can keep charging those fees and sell the same property over and over..... Hmmmmmm........
It is ridiculous to have made people believe they could own a home that they could not possibly afford. It was done purposely. Nobody "made them" buy a house, but somebody LIED to them to make the dream seem possible. Instead, we have a national nightmare.

[Pop's]

For those who blame the banks can you please read the conclusion by the President.
"They were drunk"
Alcohol is a disease and banks need help in the form of some sort of Bank 12 step program where they can go to meetings and introduce themselves as Bankers who show up to work drunk or something like that.
To drink in most states is 21 years old. Most bankers are between 30 and 60. I see new laws coming into Congress and the Bush Administration to raise the drinking age to 61 years old so bankers can no longer show up to work drunk. If Bankers are denied access to the booze that they crave before the "opening bell" and a good tweleve step program is made into a cabinet position or a new branch of the government then maybe Bankers and Wall street will sober up.
Until that happens, Welcome to a world of angry, drunk, wall street bankers.

[Tom]

My, my. Everything, from drought to irresponsible buyers and brokers, is now Bush's fault. Well, you argue, it happened on his watch! Government regulators were applying the law; unscrupulous brokers, bond dealers, and mortgage companies, as well as naive homeowners, are to blame. I don't think you can qualify this as Republican or Democrat. Variable rate mortgages, not one of Bush's creations, were as much to blame as interest rates themselves.

Wall Street did get "drunk" on its own greed and lack of compassion for its clients. I don't think Obama, without severe government regulations that stifle growth, is going to change that attitude.

[Pete Olson]

Bush is GOD why dont you'll accept that.

[larry]

i cannot for the life of me stand the site of this man, his wife, family, his so called vice president, but i have to admit that he is right about this. i think this is the first time he's been right about anything. but it still goes to show what he thinks about the people of this country whom he is supposed to be leading.

[sf1000000]

Wake up. Have anyone of you seen the Special on HBO MAXED OUT? Go take a look how Bush and his buddies have screwed you all and not stopped to say so much as Thanks. Bush fiddled while the country burns. Well, it won't be long before his fool is back on his ranch collecting checks and living like an ex dicator. I just hope the next President appoints a someone to look at the soon to be EX PRES. And his cronies and this war. Figure out when Bush took office the TOP 1% of the wealthest controlled like 15% of the wealth of this nation..they now control over 22%..I would say wake Up but most of you would rather just pick up where the party left off

[Old Guy]

Can you spell "Personal Responsibility"?

[Phyllis Kunz]

Bush-bashing is a national
pasttime but this great
president can take it and
is relaxed and gracious.
Others lose their cool and
rant and rave but not this
man. D.H. Lawrence said
that a man who is fully a man
is a god. And didn't Jesus
say something to the effect
that all of you are sons of
God. I liked Nixon, but I
don't think you will ever
hear President Bush say,
"You will not have me to kick
around anymore."

[Naef Basile]

It should be noted that if you say anything to a bank officer that sounds like you have money, you will very likely be asked to sit down and hear a description of a type of loan, or a investment option that is "superior" to the investment that you have now. This is not a form of "helpfulness" from the bank officer; He/She is sweating bullets to acquire loans because the manager at their morning meeting is pressuring them to get people to sign up for major loans. Right in the middle of this mortgage crisis I had a JPMorgan-Chase guy here in Scarsdale who was conjuring up all sorts of "emergency" scenarios where a home-equity loan (variable, of course)
would provide me with funds. When I told him I didn't need emergency funds, he said "Then don't spend it! You can just pay back the loan any time by returning the money!" I am not making this up. This is what corporate culture has come to in this country. You, our financial-sector employee, must provide us with results regardless of what you have to do or say to accomplish it. The same absence of ethics exists with many stock brokerage investment banks. Their tactics include the now-disastrous business of selling mortgage-backed securities that were supposed to grow in value due to VARIABLE RATE mortgage loans, sold to people who could never have assumed higher mortgage payments
when the interest rate "varied according to market conditions".
The people who prey on Mom and Dad are being pressured to do so, by the bank
management who are their bosses. These bosses, the branch managers, are in turn pressured to do this by the existing mandate of the bank's corporate policy, which obviously is overseen by senior officers and the bank's corporate executives. No one below the level of executive board member can question the goals of the corporation, unless of course, they wish to become unemployed. If you are not a member of the board, having a feeling of ambivalence over predatory lending --- is irrelevant. Try asking your local bank officer for a 4.5% FIXED RATE loan and see his/her reaction. The bank cannot be happy with the profit they will make by adding 2.5% to what they paid the Fed in 2008. They have to make you pay for their future purchases of cash, if the Fed raises it's lending rate, in the future. So the loan is "variable", purely because the profit in your measly 4.5% interest is being lost paying the Fed 9%, at times when the economy is good, and the Fed controls inflation by curbing the corporate ability to borrow. The bank that formerly loaned you money at 4.5% a couple of years ago, knows that it will now add 2.5% to the 9% interest it now must pay to get more cash from the Fed during years of upturn, prosperity, and the inevitable inflation which the Fed must block. That extra 2.5% means that they are still making money, but they now no longer see YOU, mister 4.5% interest, as profitable. THAT is why you were offered a variable rate loan in the first place; to make sure that you would remain profitable no matter how much the Federal interest rate went up. It has always been done this way. The difference now is that they did it to people who use grocery coupons; not for personal amusement, but because they are just getting by.

[fixed & happy]

Variable mortgages became POPULAR under guess who? Clinton! ARM's got their initial start in the late 1980's. They began to really click in 1998-99. As it was explained to my wife & I when we purchased our home in the early 1990's & when we re-financed in the early 2000's, we had a choice of taking a fixed loan or pot luck with an ARM. The potential downside of the ARM being the possibility of a higher rate 5 years later when the ARM came due. We chose the fixed rate both times. ARM's became the instrument of GREED, in that many people who purchased using an ARM did so with the idea that the value of the home would go up & they could sell it either when or before the ARM came due and make a profit & use the windfall for a downpayment on another home with a fixed rate. For most it didn't work out that way. SHAME, SHAME, SHAME! Now that the economy has changed & many of these people can't make a profit selling the home or afford to refinance on a fixed rate they want the government to bail them out free. Who's fault is this? They gambled & lost. But they don't want to accept the blame for their own failure. It's easy to blame those in political power for their own stupidity. Always have & always will. In most cases realtors were as much to blame as the home purchaser, by telling the buyer that they should buy as much home as they could get away with because they would be able to sell it for a nice profit & buy a larger & more expensive home with the profit next time. The buyer has the ultimate responsibility to do his due diligence regarding how much home he can really afford. If he doesn't do that SHAME, SHAME on him. The government doesn't have a responsibility to bail him out of his failed GREED endeavor. For those who are simple minded, the government didn't make the mortgage & the government is the rest of us people who do our due diligence & pay our taxes & shouldn't have to bail out the GREEDY & STUPID. Don't blame those in political power for this failed scheme.

[Marilyn]

Most arrogant, obnoxious, braindead President of the US there has ever been.
Gross, overbearing, overzealous, off balance, nincompoop, poor representative of the US, etc.

[Marilyn]

I beg to differ, but this particular man will be "kicked" by many for the rest of his life.
Whether he cares or not, whether he is aware or not, he ranks the lowest in the US history of Presidents.
The world knows it too.

[Phyllis Kunz]

President Bush, the greatest
president in modern history
will endure because he,
the bigger man, can endure
their hatred.

[Phyllis Kunz]

President Bush, the greatest
president in modern history
will endure and because he
is the bigger man he will
endure their hatred.

[Michael]

I you think Bush is ok, you are part of the problem....

[Barbara Emeneau]

If Bush's war in Iraq were not happening, the people who can't pay their mortgages would have enough money because they would be working to build windmills and geothermal energy devices and repairing the bridges, roads, and buildings that have been neglected for 7 years. We would also be buying clothes and appliances. We could be cleaning up Superfund sites, rather than bombing sites.

[JM]

We all know what he said - the video's been played across the country for the past week since Ms. Shay found it and put it on her blog. I saw it on the Colbert Report last night...why did you take it down, ABC13? And who is the guy writing on her blog? I smell something fishy...

[Phyllis Kunz]

From The Possessed by Dostoyvsky

"I fear for you," Tinhon said

"You are afraid that I will
not be able to endure it,
to endure their hatred."

"And their laughter"

"...Then you would conquer
them and draw men to you
and unite them in love, Oh,
if only you could endure it."

President Bush will endure it
and bring peace to the
Middle East,

[matt]

Naef Basile, you ignorant slut. Clinton did not come into office until 1993. Before that it was the hallowed and revered Regan, and Bush the elder.

[Radiant Flux]

digital debt is not money BIG LIZZY. What part of currency fraud does the American dumb not get? Digits sold as money and compound interest charged exponentially to create wealth for those who think tank ways to steal the whole world's wealth.

Duh America -- stop purchasing all the toxic US brands as though it is the intelligent choice.

Just say no to drugs.

Digital debt sold as credit and expanded exponentially to destroy the US economy was/is a drug sold to us by those who understand addictive personalties.

How? The media created the addicted society and now we're nothing more than ...

CONSUMING RESPONDERS.

[AR]

Something is up with this blog! Where are Miya's postings? Where's the Bush video? Why no more postings in days?

Is the "House That Mickey Mouse Built" up to up to its shennanigans again?

[yanni raz]

Washington Politics at it’s Best!
President Bush signs a bill to rescue homeowners.

Change of heart. He first threatened to veto it, but after rethinking about it and saying basically that it was better than nothing, President Bush signed early today in the absence of the typical White House ceremony at the time of signing a new law, a bill that will rescue 400,000 homeowners from foreclosure and that provides assurance to the giants, recently in trouble, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Usually, the signing of a bill comes with a celebration, souvenirs for other politicians, etc… this time was different. This time, the signing of the bill came early in the morning, only a few White House aides and administrators were present, and the new law was announced by e-mail moments later.

The new law comes with a split decision, Republicans opposed it, and Banks and Home Builders support it.

Now, let’s be realistic, who will this new law benefit?
Homeowners cannot refinance because their home values are much less that what they owe, banks won’t take the risk. Banks are asking borrowers to have a perfect credit score, to be, what it’s known in the Real Estate business as A-Paper or full doc. Is this Washington Politics at it’s Best or is the President really making an extraordinary effort to “rescue” homeowners from loosing their most valued asset?

[Dannymcgovern]

you have just nationalised your houses! You are paying the government indirectly for your houses. Surely it is the governments business to provide housing. Excuse my ignorance but is the United States a republic or what?

[Mark]

We all know what he said - the video's been played across the country for the past week since Ms. Shay found it and put it on her blog. I saw it on the Colbert Report last night...why did you take it down, ABC13? And who is the guy writing on her blog? I smell something fishy...selling your house in the Houston area? List it for free at www.primefsbolistings.com/houston

[sohbet]

thank you

[Debbie]

Thomas Sowell wrote this article today:

“Senator Obama’s words often sound very reasonable and moderate, as well as lofty and inspiring. But everything that he has actually done over the years places him unmistakably with the extreme left elitists.

Sadly, many of those who are enchanted by his rhetoric are unlikely to check out the facts. But nothing is a more real or more important issue than whether what a candidate says is the direct opposite of what he has actually been doing for years.

The old phrase, “a man of high ideals but no principles,” is one that applies all too painfully to Barack Obama today. His words expressing lofty ideals may appeal to the gullible but his long history of having no principles makes him a danger of the first magnitude in the White House.”

[Debbie]

Part of an article from the debate last night:

“The sky-high gasoline prices Americans paid all summer were effectively an energy tax, brought to us by policies limiting energy production supported chiefly by Democrats like Nancy Pelosi.

Barrack Obama, too, talked up the foreign-policy considerations of dependence on foreign oil. Yet he also made sure to empathize with families for whom $3.80 gas strains the budget. The irony that Senator Obama’s party shoulders much of the responsibility for those high prices.

McCain squandered an opportunity to clarify his differences from Obama on nuclear power. The facts are these: Both candidates claim to support nuclear power, but McCain actually seems to mean it. He supports opening the Yucca Mountain waste repository, a critical step in guaranteeing the expansion of nuclear energy. Meanwhile, Obama vows to shut down Yucca, though provides no alternatives. He’s trying to have it both ways. He can say he supports nuclear, as do increasing numbers of Americans. But he sends an unmistakable signal to the anti-nuclear environmental lobby that, without Yucca Mountain, nuclear power isn’t going to expand on his watch.”

Obama showed why at this late date he is the favorite to win come Election Day. Without any hesitation, Obama stated that we have to prioritize and that energy tops the list. (The fact that Obama said in the first debate that energy would be the first item on his agenda he’d abandon will no doubt be tossed down the memory hole by his cheerleaders in the mainstream media.)

[Debbie]

Some more wise words from a Thomas Sowell article:

Senator McCain’s health care plan is built around giving households more control over health care coverage decisions. He would convert today’s income-tax preference for employer-paid insurance into a refundable tax credit that workers and their families could direct to the insurance plan of their choice.

Obama and Biden are trying to scare voters by suggesting, first of all, that McCain’s reform would leave some households worse off than they are today. In fact, most Americans would come out well ahead under the McCain plan, as independent estimates — and common sense — indicate. A middle-class household in the 25-percent tax bracket — that’s married couples with incomes between $65,100 and $131,450 in 2008 — would have to get more than $20,000 a year in employer-paid premiums to be better off today than under the McCain plan. (The average employer contribution to family coverage was $9,325 in 2008, according to this annual survey.) A distributional analysis of the McCain plan by the Tax Policy Center shows all income groups, including the poorest fifth, better off with the McCain tax credit than under current law in 2009.

Senators Obama and Biden have also tried to claim that millions of Americans would be pushed out of employer-based plans under the McCain reform. But this claim is also false. McCain’s proposal would give workers the option to take their credit and apply it to insurance outside of their workplace. In some cases, this would be a rational decision, as it would give a worker portable insurance they could keep even as their employment and life circumstances change.

But there is no reason to believe large numbers of employers would suddenly drop coverage altogether. Job-based insurance would still be very desirable for most workers, as the premiums paid by firms would remain exempt from payroll taxes. For this reason, employers looking to attract and retain the best workers offer attractive health-insurance plans.

As Senator Obama has criticized the McCain plan in recent weeks, one has to wonder whether he even understands his own plan. Indeed, it is Obama’s plan, not McCain’s, that represents the real threat to employer-sponsored insurance.

[timothy]

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