Mr. McCain's Laissez Faire

I wrote a letter to the Editor of the Washington Post on Sunday morning, it got published today.
This is a link to the Post letter. The original unedited letter follows:

To The Editor:

Mr. George Will applauds Senator McCain's "honorable" policy of "minimalism" in the current housing crisis, preferring little or no government intervention, allowing the housing market to first "find its bottom".

If this was a case of intervention on behalf of people taking paper losses on speculative investments, I would tend to agree.

But foreclosure is not that, it is something that forces families to move from their homes.

It appears that the Republican leadership is moving away even from "Compassionate Conservatism". I can understand not supporting irresponsible "bailouts". But what is our national consciousness? Do we instead allow a large "kick-out"?

Back in the 1980's, Mr. McCain wanted Charles Keating, his own constituent, to be "fairly treated" when Keating met with him and asked for intervention. Senator McCain asks for "fairness" as well today. Is he thus willing to meet with every single one of his Arizona constituents facing foreclosure?

I am fortunate - my house has a relatively low-interest, fixed-rate mortgage. But I do value some type of support to those less so.

This is a link to George Will's article.

My only regret was the removal of the line about "national consciousness", but I think I got my point across.

I did some research while writing the letter. I found a copy of a speech he recently gave regarding the housing crisis, and an article about the Keating scandal from an Arizona newspaper.

Since writing it I looked up what the foreclosure situation in Arizona is. According to this article the rate of sales that are foreclosures in Arizona more than doubled from 2006 to 2007 - from 3.4 percent to 7.4 percent . It didn't show the exact number of foreclosures, but I found in some Reeal Estate pages that it is in the low 4 digits per month. It's not the highest in the country - Nevada is - but I think it is above the National average.

I'll have more to say about the campaign in another blog. I have another letter about foreign policy that I hope someone will publish, so I'll wait a few days before adding it here. Please feel free to read the rest of my blog and comment.

Thank you for reading.