From the office of Congressman Andy Harris:
Rep. Andy Harris Statement on May Unemployment Report
“President Obama’s failed policies have led to the longest period of sustained unemployment since the Great Depression. May’s dismal unemployment report marks the 40th straight month of 8 percent unemployment in America. It’s clear that the President’s failed policies are hurting hard-working families. According to a recent Census Bureau report, nearly half of all Americans are classified as poor or low income. A record number of Americans now receive food stamps and the median family income has decreased by over $1,000 since President Obama took office. Americans can no longer afford the President’s new normal of high unemployment.”
Let the finger pointing begin.
we can’t afford another Republican’t congress whom is more interested in protecting the military industrial complex, keeping tax breaks for big oil, tax breaks for the super rich, and their obsession with the budget deficit that they helped create by giving tax breaks to the “job creators” as they call self-employed/small business/corporate welfare takers. Meanwhile every proposal to reduce these tax breaks has fallen in deaf ears while trying to cut Social Security, Medicare and Medical Assistance. Oh, and this is the ditch that we are getting out due to Bush’s policies.
Bush recommended several times to reign in Fanny Mae and Freedy Mac, starting in 03. Both of which were defended by democrats. I guess its easy to forget about Barney and Chris’s involvement in the housing crash with your blind hatred of Bush.
Too bad you don’t know how to write. The first sentence should be WHO. It is used as a subject. Use the nominative case pronoun WHO. Stop trying to sound smart. Your contention that it’s the Republican congress that is responsible for this economic mess is indicative of your ignorance. Owebama had a Democratic house and senate his first 2 years. How did they help our economy? That’s right: they spent all their time hoodwinking us by shoving through Owebamacare. We see how well that worked out. With luck November will place an adult in the WH. This arrogant adolescent needs to look for one more jb – a ne one for itself.
When you can argue the facts you can argue the grammar, punctuation and the such. Your assessment of Freddie/Fannie as the causes of the financial meltdown couldn’t be more wrong. Wall Street, derivatives, debt swap guarantees and pure greed from institutional banks created the mess we are in. Subprime loans were created by Wall Street bankers, not community banks, credit unions or any major retail banking lender. CRA laws never “forced” any bank to make loans to people that couldn’t afford them. Freddie/Fannie got caught playing the same game as they were being shut out from the market by innovative, uninsured mortgages, 8/20’s, 80/10/10’s and other creative ways forgo FHA/VA/RHS insurance as well as PMI providers. The banks would keep the 80% loans and sell off to pension plans the 2nd mortgages, or they would buy a debt swap policy from ING. To say Bernie Frank or Obama is the reason that the market crashed is foolish and shows your lack of knowledge but it does show that you have been paying attention to FOX news and Rush. I will agree though that many played a part in it for sure, but I know that Obama did not put the economy in the ditch, as it was already there. What have the republican’s done to bring back capital to the financing markets? The student loan market went AWOL once the credit crunch started and really, only a govt takeover of student loan market kept that sector alive. The hands off approach from your republicant’s hasn’t worked either except create 2 unfunded wars at a cost of 2 trillion $$$.
“CRA laws never “forced” any bank to make loans to people that couldn’t afford them.”
CRA forces banks to make loans to minorities by capturing race and other demographic data and publicly releasing it. If the black approval rate drops too low at any bank, the Jesse Jackson brigade appears and starts protesting, thus driving the banks to offer products to minorities they would decline to whites.
CRA also prohibits red-lining.
Red-lining is a predatory lending practice that does not promote equal access to credit and housing. CRA’s require that banks maintain data on the loans underwrite, approvals and denials of credit to make sure that their products are offered to all that qualify to obtain the loan. There is no data however that shows that minorities have more defaults of mortgages than anyone else but there is plenty of data that shows that given the same credit profile and income, whites are more likely to be offered credit, approved for loans and are underwritten for the most affordable products. In fact, the mandated state Notice of Intent to Foreclose (NOI) shows that Bel Air, Belcamp and Abingdon have just as many NOI’s over the past 4 years as Edgewood or Abingdon do. Statistically, the default rates by race/ethnic mirrow the county’s demographic composition too. No evidence that minorities are more of a credit risk that anyone else.
Hey Name That Tune,
“In fact, the mandated state Notice of Intent to Foreclose (NOI) shows that Bel Air, Belcamp and Abingdon have just as many NOI’s over the past 4 years as Edgewood or Abingdon do. Statistically, the default rates by race/ethnic mirrow the county’s demographic composition too. No evidence that minorities are more of a credit risk that anyone else.” – Statistics are indeed wonderful. However, a little more digging into the stats will reveal the following (based on realtytrac dot com):
Bel Air – 15 foreclosures
Belcamp – 2 foreclosures
Abingdon – 12 foreclosures
Edgewood – 14 foreclosures
Aberdeen – 11 foreclosures
However, lets delve a bit deeper. Though the actual amount of foreclosures is similar, the rate is not very close:
Bel Air – 1 foreclosure in 1638 housing units
Belcamp – 1 foreclosure in 1440 housing units
Abingdon – 1 foreclosure in 968 housing units
Edgewood – 1 foreclosure in 663 housing units
Aberdeen – 1 foreclosure in 813 housing units
So, based on statistics, Edgewood has the worst foreclosure rate by far; followed by Aberdeen and then Abingdon. Belcamp and Bel Air have foreclosure rates that aren’t very close at all to the other three.
Anyways, have a nice day.
Those would be the same wars that Obama is vigorously prosecuting. And those would be the financial institutions that Timmy Geithner is vigorously bailing out all the while approving bonuses for the executives and huge severance packages. Those would be the financial institutions that Eric Holder’s Justice Department has put how many in jail? None. Not one.
Indeed the economy was in bad shape when Obama took office. He has continued to keep it there and even make it worse with the failed policies of his administration. Geithner, Holder, Sebelius, Reid, Pelosi. What a sad bunch.
The single biggest thing holding us back is the mistrust each side has for the other side (see posts above). It’s keeping a record amount of private capital on the sidelines — away from a obviously dysfunctional government and economy. Reforming medicare; ending popular tax giveaways like the mortgage interest deduction on 2nd, 3rd, and 4th homes; ending ethanol while embracing natural gas infrastructure; normalizing immigration and guest worker policies; making our corporate tax rate competitive; passing budgets with long-term controls; sharing the sacrifice on our public sector pension crisis; equalizing the burden each taxpayer feels; and realizing that M-W-F USPS delivery would be just fine, etc. etc., is all going to take sincere cooperation and the checking of our egos at the door. President Obama stymied process when he scuttled Simpson-Bowles and demagogued the Ryan Plan. The Republicans did their part with their quasi-religious faithfulness to Grover Norquist. Most of the countries around the world won’t face these challenges either. We will see what we’re all made of soon enough as the fraying of our social safety continues to accelerate. 2012 matters. A change in perspective matters more.
it seems to me that “share sacrifice” works for republican’ts as long as their corporate welfare friends get theirs and the middle class gets screwed in the process. To reform Social Security would be sensible if the income cap was increased, means tested for those whom have other assets and maintaining a minimum level for those who don’t have other means of retirement. Most Americans don’t have a private/public pension plan nor do they have enough accumulated in assets to maintain minimum living standards into retirement. The cost of health care continues to increase even as there seems to be a reduction in the usage of services (I read that recently in an article)which really goes against the grain of supply/demand. Health care needs to be regulated like a public good and service. The 10% increases in health care costs are unsustainable and will have to be rained in in the years to come as the baby boomers retire and there are less young people to pay the bills. However the status quo that Republican’ts spouse that cuts tax rates and reduces spending in non-security only is not sustainable either because it just grows deficits and doesn’t change the basic math that less money is coming in than is going out.
So, Congressman Harris, when are you going to debate your opponent, Democratic Congressional candidate Wendy Rosen? I am sure that you will have the perfect opportunity to share your ideas with the public in that setting and actually back up what you are talking about, neither of which you have done since taking office.
Tom Myers
President, Young Democrats of Harford County
Wendy who? Forget it, Mr. Myers. Next time try to find a candidate that lines up with what the voters want not what MOM wants.
Do you know what she stands for Alex? Or are you simply arguing against her without knowledge of what she wants to bring to the table? Simply because she may part of a group of people that you find hard to co-exist with let alone tolerate?
Share with us her views that you dislike. Share with us her views that you do like. Be objective. That would be so cool on your part, and raise my estimation of you as a person. Mr Harris sound bites infuriate me. He is against an awful lot, but I’m not exactly sure what he is for.
If he wants smaller government – let him champion reduced defense spending. Turn TSA out and back into the contractor jobs they once were. You like private enterprise – do it, support it. Being a government worker does not mean you are any more interested in doing a good job than anyone else.
Well, David, the only thing Harris appears to be for is not agreeing to a debate with Wendy Rosen.
Tom Myers
President, Young Democrats of Harford County
David,
I don’t find it at all difficult to to co-exist with the Dem/Libs. I don’t want to co-exist with them under their terms of ‘can’t we all just get along?’ Difficult has nothing to do with it. I wouldn’t even try. They have told me in exquisite detail what the want to do and I find it unacceptable. Therefore I have no interest in doing anything other than resisting totally. In the past there were Democrats that I could respect and I could reach some accomodation with them but the current gang of Obama, Pelosi, Reed, Holder, Geithner, O’Malley, Miller, Busch, et al, are beyong any distance I would ever stretch to.
Then find the ones you can work with and support them. You don’t have to vote with them, just work with them. I’m not sure how this is contrary to the idea of “Why can’t we all just get along”. As a human I am obligated to be respectful of the rights and interests of others and to give them a fair hearing. Shouting people down because they are disagreed with is not the answer. No one listens when everyone is yelling. I am in disagreement with many conservative co-workers on the most peculiar of issues: limitations on gun ownership. Many have expressed concerns about personal ownership of a Barrett .50 caliber rifle. The notion it can penetrate an armored vehicle causes them to believe they should only be in the hands of law enforcement. Does that sound like gun control from people normally supportive of the right to gun ownership? There is common ground. You have to search for it sometimes, but it is more important to be willing to search for it.
Thanks, David, but I live in Maryland. There is no common ground here anymore. The Dem/Libs in control have said it is their way or else. You might want to try your advice on the and see how they react to it. Good luck with that. And I’m not really interested in getting bogged down negotiating the small issues because it is a distraction from the larger issues that really matter.
BTW, I see that MOM was in Wisconsin the last few days. I wonder if he is staying for the beer and brat party. I also wonder who paid for the trip. I guess he wil be back in time to get National Harbor their casino.
another soundbite from I do nothing for my voters harris. If he spent more time actually doing and working on compromise ( which is what our government actually has to do to work) , he might actually realize that he is so far out of touch with reality and those people who he “represents”, the only ones who he is in tune with are the hard line, fringe, I want it my way or no way groups.
Ok Andy, you want to help out companies and wealthy people who ” make jobs”. here ya go….
Lower the corperate tax rate on companies based on how many living wage permanent jobs they create, on a sliding scale allowing for small to large business. The jobs must be on the books for a minimum of 5 years or the company must pay the difference in taxes for the lower amount they were set at.
Then, for all the so called wealthy, you want to lower their taxes, go ahead. they loose all deductions that the middle / lower class doesnt have, so they will pay the same tax rate and be eligable for the same deductions. no specfial exemtions, no loopholes for the exotic investments. If they earn 75k in wages but get bonus’s in stock and investments, they pay the current tax value on what they recieve. Get 500k in stock, pay 500k of taxes..
good luick, I’m sure they right side will love you…..