factlady – This is a ideology-driven myth in the making.
Most of the foreclosures are in California, Arizona and Florida. They are largely not to poor, first time buyers, but to middle and upper class people who got in over their heads considering their houses “investments”. They were buying more house than they could afford, often with “teaser” payments betting they could get new loans when the payments ballooned. They were also often pulling equity out of their houses to live beyond their means, feeling rich from home equity.
Everyone from Wall St. to Main St. leveraged themselves into high investment returns in a Fed driven climate of easy money. This easy money produced a high risk system, vulnerable to the least downturn.
The Republican base has got to stop being addicted to an ideology driven, self serving reality. This is the stuff of politics, not the stuff of effective governance. Our job is to be the people to run the country, not just political campaigns.
If Republicans
