Date: 8/6/2008 3:06 AM
By MIKE GLOVER
Associated Press Writer
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) _ Republican presidential candidate John McCain opposes the $300 billion farm bill and subsidies for ethanol, positions that both supporters and opponents say might cost him votes he needs in the upper Midwest this November.
His Democratic rival, Barack Obama, is making a more traditional regional pitch: He favors the farm bill approved by Congress this year and subsidies for the Midwest-based ethanol industry. McCain instead has promised to open new markets abroad for farmers to export their commodities.
In his position papers, McCain opposes farm subsidies only for those with incomes of more than $250,000 and a net worth above $2 million. But he’s gone further on the stump.
“I don’t support agricultural subsidies no matter where they are,” McCain said at a recent appearance in Wisconsin. “The farm bill, $300 billion, is something America simply can’t afford.”
McCain later described the measure, which is very popular throughout the Midwest, as “a $300 billion, bloated, pork-barrel-laden bill” because of subsidies for industries like ethanol.
It’s not a stand that pleases Republican Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa.
“I would not advise him to take that position,” Grassley said. “For sure, he can’t lose Missouri and that’s in the upper Midwest. Could he lose Iowa, Minnesota and Wisconsin and still be elected president? Yes, but I wouldn’t advise him to have that strategy.”
Grassley, a conservative Republican, and his Senate colleague from Iowa, liberal Democrat Tom Harkin, have achieved enduring success in this state largely by mastering the politics of farm issues. Harkin chairs the Senate Agriculture Committee, which wrote the new farm legislation.
“I don’t see any scenario in which McCain can get to the White House without carrying some upper Midwestern states,” said Harkin, an Obama backer. “I’ve never really understood in all my years why Sen. McCain has gone out of his way to speak against and vote against policies that are important to the upper Midwest.”
There’s a history of close elections in the region. President Bush carried Indiana, Iowa, Missouri, North Dakota and South Dakota in 2004, earning 35 electoral votes. But his Democratic opponent, John Kerry, prevailed in Minnesota, Wisconsin and Illinois, giving him 41 electoral votes.
Veteran GOP strategist Gentry Collins said McCain can defend his record on farm issues, including opposing “corporate welfare” for big operations, but he said there’s more at work.
“The upper Midwest is crucial in this election, and Midwestern voters value authenticity. They value experience,” Collins said. “I don’t think agricultural issues are the only issues Midwestern voters care about. There are some bigger-picture issues, broader issues where he’s strong.”
But on another important issue to Midwesterners, McCain opposed a tax break for developing wind power. Obama supported the tax break.
“We’re employing close to 2,000 people right now in Iowa in the wind energy industry,” Harkin said.
McCain has been most outspoken on ethanol subsidies, and that has Republicans worried in Iowa, the nation’s biggest producer of the fuel. Other top ethanol producers include Illinois, Minnesota, Indiana, Ohio, Wisconsin and Missouri.
“It does challenge him in states like Iowa, the No. 1 ethanol state,” said Bill Northey, Iowa’s Republican agriculture secretary. “It does make it tougher to make the case.”
Drake University political science professor Dennis Goldford said McCain’s problem on farm issues reflects a deeper issue he faces as he’s courted conservative GOP activists, many of whom are deeply suspicious of him.
“He’s essentially reverting to standard Republican supply-side economics,” said Goldford. “That’s where he’s got a problem. He’s got to find his own voice and so far he hasn’t had a voice.”
Iowa Gov. Chet Culver, a Democrat who has campaigned for Obama, said he’s puzzled by McCain’s position. He points to other Republicans who have a different view.
“President Bush and I just had a good conversation about how critically important ethanol is, and how Iowa is positioned so well to lead the nation,” said Culver. “I have no idea why John McCain doesn’t support it. It hurts him in Indiana, and Missouri and Ohio, and it’s not the message right now that any of us want to hear.”
Obama has a modest lead in national polls, but electoral votes will decide the election. Obama is poised to do well on both coasts, while McCain is favored in the South and some parts of the West. That leaves the upper Midwest as a swing battleground.
“The Midwest is crucial in this campaign,” said Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller, a Democrat and an early backer of Obama. “Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin and perhaps Indiana are very important states. McCain is behind, and he’s in danger of falling further behind.”
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press.
Who qualifies for mortgage help and how to get it
Date: 7/29/2008 11:02 PM
By DAVE CARPENTER
AP Business Writer
Questions and answers about the Hope for Homeowners Act of 2008, passed by Congress last weekend to try to steer as many as 400,000 struggling homeowners away from foreclosure:
Q: What exactly will the legislation do?
A: It will allow those who qualify to cancel their old mortgage loans and replace them with 30-year fixed-rate loans for up to 90 percent of the home’s current value. The FHA will insure a total of $300 billion of the loans over a three-year period.
But the decision on whether to write such a loan remains up to banks, which would have to be willing to take a loss on the existing loans in exchange for avoiding an often-costly foreclosure.
Q: Who is eligible?
A: Eligible borrowers must have spent more than 31 percent of their monthly incomes on their mortgages as of March 1, 2008. The troubled loan must have originated no later than Jan. 1, 2008, and be on the borrower’s primary residence. And the borrower’s income must be verified.
Q: When does the program start?
A: It takes effect Oct. 1 and runs through September 2011, although the FHA isn’t likely to have it operating at full capacity until next year.
Q: Since lenders can pick and choose which loans to refinance, how can consumers determine if theirs will be selected?
A: Check with the bank or financial company servicing your mortgage, but it may be weeks before they make decisions concerning the new guidelines and assess individual loans.
Even then, keep expectations limited.
“Servicers are going to be reluctant to take the government up on their offer,” predicted Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Economy.com. “The earliest they’ll start taking them up on it is early next year. And even then it’s likely to be modest.”
Q: Is there anything a homeowner can do to improve chances of benefiting from the program, such as crunching numbers to make a case for the bank?
A: Not really. The best step is to keep up your payments as best you can.
Q: But doesn’t this provide an incentive to NOT pay your mortgage, if you’re barely keeping ahead of bills and are underwater on your house, so you can qualify?
A: No. If your situation deteriorates enough, the bank may reject any possible new loan.
“Turning yourself into a financial basket case is not going to work,” said Dan Seiver, a finance professor at San Diego State University. “If you turn into a complete deadbeat, the servicer is going to just foreclose and dump it.”
Q: So what should I be doing now besides trying to keep up with payments?
A: Talk to a local credit counselor and call the toll-free hot line of the Hope Now alliance — an industry group trying to coordinate a response to the mortgage crisis — at 1-888-995-HOPE. It is available 24 hours a day to provide mortgage counseling in multiple languages.
Mary Thomason, director of resource development for The Impact Group of Atlanta, a housing counseling group, also suggests tracking expenses and income closely in order to be able to forecast your cash flow for the next six months and give yourself better control of your finances.
Q: If the banks and lenders refuse to write these loans, then what?
A: Public and political pressure may prompt them to participate. If not, and more people continue to lose their homes, Zandi says the next White House administration subject them to additional regulations or investigations if they remain unwilling to take on the risks.
Q: What happens if I’m able to sell my home after I refinance?
A: If you sell during the next five years, you must agree to share 50 percent of any profits from the resale with the government. What’s more, homeowners can only retain equity gains based on a sliding scale. The homeowner would have zero equity from a sale in the first year, with the amount rising 10 percent in each succeeding year and capping at 50 percent from a sale in year five and thereafter.
The equity must be repaid because the maximum amount on the new loans will be capped at 90 percent of the current market value, which automatically gives the previously troubled homeowner 10 percent equity in the home.
Q: Where can consumers find more detailed information about the plan?
A: There is a six-page summary of the housing act at
http://banking.senate.gov/public/_files/HousingandEconomicRecove yAc tSummary.pdf
and the FHA’s Web site at http://www.fha.gov is a place to watch for updated information. The entire 694-page bill is at http://www.house.gov/apps/list/press/financialsvcs_dem/hr3221_bi l_t ext.pdf
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press.
By DAVE CARPENTER
AP Business Writer
Questions and answers about the Hope for Homeowners Act of 2008, passed by Congress last weekend to try to steer as many as 400,000 struggling homeowners away from foreclosure:
Q: What exactly will the legislation do?
A: It will allow those who qualify to cancel their old mortgage loans and replace them with 30-year fixed-rate loans for up to 90 percent of the home’s current value. The FHA will insure a total of $300 billion of the loans over a three-year period.
But the decision on whether to write such a loan remains up to banks, which would have to be willing to take a loss on the existing loans in exchange for avoiding an often-costly foreclosure.
Q: Who is eligible?
A: Eligible borrowers must have spent more than 31 percent of their monthly incomes on their mortgages as of March 1, 2008. The troubled loan must have originated no later than Jan. 1, 2008, and be on the borrower’s primary residence. And the borrower’s income must be verified.
Q: When does the program start?
A: It takes effect Oct. 1 and runs through September 2011, although the FHA isn’t likely to have it operating at full capacity until next year.
Q: Since lenders can pick and choose which loans to refinance, how can consumers determine if theirs will be selected?
A: Check with the bank or financial company servicing your mortgage, but it may be weeks before they make decisions concerning the new guidelines and assess individual loans.
Even then, keep expectations limited.
“Servicers are going to be reluctant to take the government up on their offer,” predicted Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Economy.com. “The earliest they’ll start taking them up on it is early next year. And even then it’s likely to be modest.”
Q: Is there anything a homeowner can do to improve chances of benefiting from the program, such as crunching numbers to make a case for the bank?
A: Not really. The best step is to keep up your payments as best you can.
Q: But doesn’t this provide an incentive to NOT pay your mortgage, if you’re barely keeping ahead of bills and are underwater on your house, so you can qualify?
A: No. If your situation deteriorates enough, the bank may reject any possible new loan.
“Turning yourself into a financial basket case is not going to work,” said Dan Seiver, a finance professor at San Diego State University. “If you turn into a complete deadbeat, the servicer is going to just foreclose and dump it.”
Q: So what should I be doing now besides trying to keep up with payments?
A: Talk to a local credit counselor and call the toll-free hot line of the Hope Now alliance — an industry group trying to coordinate a response to the mortgage crisis — at 1-888-995-HOPE. It is available 24 hours a day to provide mortgage counseling in multiple languages.
Mary Thomason, director of resource development for The Impact Group of Atlanta, a housing counseling group, also suggests tracking expenses and income closely in order to be able to forecast your cash flow for the next six months and give yourself better control of your finances.
Q: If the banks and lenders refuse to write these loans, then what?
A: Public and political pressure may prompt them to participate. If not, and more people continue to lose their homes, Zandi says the next White House administration subject them to additional regulations or investigations if they remain unwilling to take on the risks.
Q: What happens if I’m able to sell my home after I refinance?
A: If you sell during the next five years, you must agree to share 50 percent of any profits from the resale with the government. What’s more, homeowners can only retain equity gains based on a sliding scale. The homeowner would have zero equity from a sale in the first year, with the amount rising 10 percent in each succeeding year and capping at 50 percent from a sale in year five and thereafter.
The equity must be repaid because the maximum amount on the new loans will be capped at 90 percent of the current market value, which automatically gives the previously troubled homeowner 10 percent equity in the home.
Q: Where can consumers find more detailed information about the plan?
A: There is a six-page summary of the housing act at
http://banking.senate.gov/public/_files/HousingandEconomicRecove yAc tSummary.pdf
and the FHA’s Web site at http://www.fha.gov is a place to watch for updated information. The entire 694-page bill is at http://www.house.gov/apps/list/press/financialsvcs_dem/hr3221_bi l_t ext.pdf
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press.
Wisconsin Dells Flood Disaster
This story has many personal angles to me. First, before I was a personal injury, I was a real estate lawyer, with an expertise in flood plain and Wisconsin Shoreland laws. My first published story in a legal publication was on the Wisconsin Shoreland law.
Second, I almost bought a home on Lake Delton’s sister lake, Mirror Lake in the early 1990’s. Third, my sister owns one of those struggling businesses in the Wisconsin Dells and also owns homes on Lake Delton. Fourth, one of my best friends lost his home from the same series of storms, although in a different state, a different river.
Floods and nature’s water in the wrong place is perhaps the part of our planet that man has the least control of. Hurricane Katrina, was more a problem with flooding than with the storm itself. I have loved water, the beach all of my life, but if you don’t respect its power, listen to those who understand hydro engineering and insure against the unforeseeable, you just can’t invest adjacent to it.
But ultimately, all of these floods are foreseeable, all to some extent avoidable. The cost: infrastructure. All of the costs of our political corruption, corporate greed and encouragement to the consumer to push blindly ahead of the last 10 years in our political and economic world, the failure to take care of our infrastructure may ultimately be the most costly. Last summer, it was a bridge collapsing over the Mississippi. In 2005, it was the levees in New Orleans. The warning signs are always there. Yet, Galveston still is unprotected, three years after the Category V that just missed it. Roads collapse, a lake is drained – a jewel of Wisconsin’s economy, destroyed.
The federal government bails out the mortgage business, but the lifeblood and backbone of our world, our roads, our levees, our planning, are pushed back for another day. Perhaps if it was the Potomac, Washington would start to care.
Attorney Gordon Johnson
http://gordonjohnson.com
http://wis-injury.com
©2008 Gordon S. Johnson, Jr.
Second, I almost bought a home on Lake Delton’s sister lake, Mirror Lake in the early 1990’s. Third, my sister owns one of those struggling businesses in the Wisconsin Dells and also owns homes on Lake Delton. Fourth, one of my best friends lost his home from the same series of storms, although in a different state, a different river.
Floods and nature’s water in the wrong place is perhaps the part of our planet that man has the least control of. Hurricane Katrina, was more a problem with flooding than with the storm itself. I have loved water, the beach all of my life, but if you don’t respect its power, listen to those who understand hydro engineering and insure against the unforeseeable, you just can’t invest adjacent to it.
But ultimately, all of these floods are foreseeable, all to some extent avoidable. The cost: infrastructure. All of the costs of our political corruption, corporate greed and encouragement to the consumer to push blindly ahead of the last 10 years in our political and economic world, the failure to take care of our infrastructure may ultimately be the most costly. Last summer, it was a bridge collapsing over the Mississippi. In 2005, it was the levees in New Orleans. The warning signs are always there. Yet, Galveston still is unprotected, three years after the Category V that just missed it. Roads collapse, a lake is drained – a jewel of Wisconsin’s economy, destroyed.
The federal government bails out the mortgage business, but the lifeblood and backbone of our world, our roads, our levees, our planning, are pushed back for another day. Perhaps if it was the Potomac, Washington would start to care.
Attorney Gordon Johnson
http://gordonjohnson.com
http://wis-injury.com
©2008 Gordon S. Johnson, Jr.