The Mortgage Mess

Two tales, two links, two spins, same paper. What a clusterf**k.

The Obama administration began the most ambitious effort since the 1930s to help troubled homeowners, offering lenders and borrowers big incentives and subsidies.

(link) [New York Times]

President Obama’s housing rescue plan does little for borrowers who have had significant jolts to their income, or who owe more than their home’s value on loans that exceed $729,750.

(link) [New York Times]

08:13 /Politics | 0 comments | permanent link


No Legal Shield in Drug Labeling, Justices Rule

Big Pharma makes it tough to feel sorry for them, but in this case, look at the underlying issues. Your product has been tested and approved, at great expense to you, so you can sell it. Selling it without this testing and approval would've landed you in jail. A third party sells your product to a consumer, who's injured by it's misapplication. The consumer sues you - and wins millions!

You want a handle on rising drug costs: don't force drug companies to pay millions and wit for years to get drugs approved - let the courts handle any injuries. Or, if you are going to make them get approval before marketing their drugs, let that approval stand as a shield from lawsuits like this one. Doing both is just jacking up the cost and keeping bureaucrats employed.

The Supreme Court said a drug company was not protected from injury claims merely because the government had approved the products and labeling.

(link) [New York Times]

07:55 /Politics | 0 comments | permanent link


Hoyer: Congress, not Obama, to decide on earmarks

If Obama is as politically astute as I think he is, this guy's gonna be in for a rude awakening. The Prez should align himself with what troops he can muster, and with the Republicans, who are suddenly totally opposed to earmarks, never mind the last eight years, and squash these attempts to wrap earmarks in the cloak of the Constitution.

Longtime pork barrel spending critic Sen. John McCain proposed an amendment Tuesday to knock out all the earmarks from the emergency spending bill that's in the Senate.

(link) [CNN.com]

07:54 /Politics | 0 comments | permanent link