The Foreclosure Crisis

You cannot pick up a paper or watch a news program these days without reading about the foreclosure crisis. Buyers of homes have simply spent more than they could afford, and their debt burden is too much to handle, so they walk away and let the loan default. Although this represents less that 1% of the total mortgages in the country, this "overspending" has had a significant psychological impact on the economy, and thus affects those other 99% that are able to pay for their home loan. Are we "talking" ourselves into a recession?


But who set the example? Could it be our government ? Our national debt is over $9 trillion as of this date, and Congress just keeps spending. In simple terms, that is a $30,000 debt for each of us - including our children and grandchildren.


Congress recently passed a "stimulus" bill, which to a large extent is because of the fear resulting from home foreclosures. This stimulus package will send many Americans a check in the amount of several hundred, up to a thousand dollars or more. Unbelievably, the original stimulus bill included illegal immigrants, but our few remaining Conservative Republicans in Congress put a stop to that. The total stimulus bill is expected to be about $150 billion. Not only will this not stimulate anything, how can it come from a government that can't even begin to pay their own debt? Many Americans believe the government is an endless source of money, and don't realize we are borrowing the $150 billion for a so-called "stimulation" of our own economy. Instead of the term "Federal Funding" what would the average American think if each government spending bill had the title: "This project is paid for from your earnings".


Unfortunately, who is going to foreclose on the US Government?


As for us, we are going to divide our "stimulus" check into six parts...for our grandchildren, and let them stimulate the economy. But there is a catch...if they read this blog and send us an email, they will get their share. If they don't respond, Grandpa knows that they don't read his Blog, so too bad - we will spend their share on ice cream, Starbucks, cool clothes, and all those things they could have had themselves. This sounds like we are trying to "indoctrinate" our grandchildren with money...well I guess we're guilty - we need more Conservatives out there to turn this country around.