Clinton talks housing crisis, Iraq
Posted: Monday, March 24, 2008 12:56 PM by Domenico Montanaro
From NBC/NJ's Athena Jones
PHILADELPHIA, Pa. -- Clinton called for a non-partisan federal emergency working group on home foreclosures that would meet to figure out how best to deal with the mortgage crisis.
The senator catalogued the problems facing the economy, including high gas prices, job losses and the credit crunch that has stemmed from problems in the mortgage market and said "confidence" was the currency of the American economy that the federal government should take stronger steps to shore it up.
"How do we keep today's turmoil from spiraling into a long and painful recession?" Clinton asked in her opening remarks.
She said more than 10 percent of all homeowners were struggling with mortgages underwater, a figure she said was the highest percentage since the Great Depression.
VIDEO: Clinton lays out her policy for combating the home foreclosure crisis during a speech in Philadelphia, Pa.
Clinton went on to repeat her call for a moratorium on home foreclosures and said she supported the legislation introduced by Sen. Chris
Dodd (D-Conn.) and Rep. Barney
Frank (D-Mass.) that would expand the government's capacity to guarantee new loans from banks that help families facing foreclosure. She also said a government entity like the Federal Housing Authority may have to act as a temporary purchaser of mortgages.
"In order to determine whether the approach outlined by Sen. Dodd and Rep. Frank is sufficient or whether we need the government to step in as a purchaser, I'm calling on Pres. Bush to appoint an Emergency Working group on Foreclosures," the senator said.
She said the country could not wait until Congress passed legislation to help families in need. She proposed the working group be led by "a distinguished, non-partisan group of economic leaders" like Alan Greenspan, Paul Volcker and Robert Rubin and that it be required to report back to Congress within three weeks.
The senator proposed new legislation to clarify legal liability for mortgage servicers to help more of them work with homeowners, and she repeated her call for $30 billion to help hard-hit states and localities to fight foreclosures.
With still a month to go before the Keystone State votes in the April 22nd primary, the senator has been campaigning heavily in the state, often focusing on so-called kitchen table issues like jobs, the economy and the mortgage crisis. She plans several events here today and tomorrow.
Clinton began her speech this morning by mentioning Iraq, where deaths over the weekend brought the toll after five years to 4,000.
"I want to take a moment to note yesterday's heartbreaking news, that five years after the start of the war, there have now been 4,000 U.S. military deaths in Iraq," clinton said. "Tens of thousands of our brave men and woman have also suffered serious wounds both visible and invisible, to their bodies their minds and their hearts as president I intend to honor their extraordinary service and the sacrifice of them and their families by ending this war and bring them home as quickly and responsibly as possible."
