Kenric Ward: Homewreckers Cisneros & Martinez
Touting his Cuban heritage, Martinez continues to hype homeownership for lower-income minorities. By 2007, Hispanic homeownership hits an all-time high of 50 percent. The Federal Reserve reports that roughly half of these mortgages are higher-cost or subprime loans to buyers with impaired credit. So there you have it: The guy who was in on the ground floor of this countryâs housing collapse comes calling with a half-billion of your tax dollars to save the day. Thanks a lot, Mel. Unfortunately, this is a bipartisan scheme.
Kenric Ward: Homewreckers Cisneros &
Martinez
By Kenric Ward
Thursday, November 13, 2008
Anatomy of a real-estate debacle:
⢠Mel Martinez, secretary of Housing and Urban Development from 2001-2003, rewrites federal regulations to allow mortgage brokers to gouge unsuspecting applicants, rake in kickbacks and inflate the housing bubble.
⢠After two years on the job, he runs for and wins a U.S. Senate seat from
Florida
in 2004. (During the campaign, he talks tough about illegal immigration, but, upon taking office, he promotes amnesty for illegals.)
⢠Touting his Cuban heritage,
Martinez
continues to hype homeownership for lower-income minorities. By 2007, Hispanic homeownership hits an all-time high of 50 percent. The Federal Reserve reports that roughly half of these mortgages are higher-cost or subprime loans to buyers with impaired credit.
⢠With the bubble bursting and foreclosures mounting in 2008, Sen. Martinez announces a $541 million federal aid package âto put a floor on declining home values across our state.â
So there you have it: The guy who was in on the ground floor of this countryâs housing collapse comes calling with a half-billion of your tax dollars to save the day. Thanks a lot, Mel.
Unfortunately, this is a bipartisan scheme.
The New York Times recently detailed how one of
Martinez
âs predecessors at HUD, Henry Cisneros, used similar politically correct con games to juice the system.
Embracing the âownership societyâ mantra, the Clinton Cabinet member loosened the rules on government-insured borrowers and vastly expanded the roles of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, the âgovernment-sponsoredâ mortgage giants (i.e., less regulation; more taxpayer exposure).
For all his pandering, Cisneros wasnât rewarded with a Senate seat, however, because he got caught up in a sex scandal involving payments to a former mistress. But he landed on his feet anyway: Upon exiting HUD, he was given seats on the boards of KB Homes and Countrywide, two of the biggest players in the decade-long housing boom.
He even started his own development company in
Texas
, with help from his old KB-Countrywide pals. And why not? When he was HUD secretary, he signed an agreement with Countrywide President Angelo Mozilo to use âproactive, creative effortsâ to extend homeownership to minorities and low-income Americans. That set the stage for Martinez & Co.
The Bush administrationâs WhiteHouse.gov Web site still displays this snippet of history, which sounds absurd in retrospect: â
Martinez
has undertaken a comprehensive process to empower and protect homebuyers, and is actively working to reform and simplify the homebuying process and make it less expensive for consumers.â
If it appears that
Washington
âs Democratic-Republican duopoly set up the housing train wreck, it is equally evident that politicians are shamelessly dodging any responsibility.
âIâm not sure you can regulate when weâre talking about an entire nation of 300 million people and this behavior becomes viral,â Cisneros rationalized to the Times, without a twinge of irony.
Congress may yet dig into the credit mess and the ensuing housing debacle, but donât expect lawmakers to unearth the truth. Fannie, Freddie, et al. invested wisely inside the Beltway.
To date, no one has questioned Cisnerosâ lucrative segue through the revolving door of apparent conflicts of interest. The media continue to unquestioningly swallow
Martinez
press releases as he builds a multimillion-dollar war chest for his 2010 re-election campaign.
Spreading $541 million in federal tax dollars to 49
Florida
communities, including $13.5 million to Port St. Lucie and $5.2 million to
Palm Bay
, is a surefire way for
Martinez
to bank political IOUs and keep his name in a positive light. Well, sort of.
As detailed in a 2007 federal court case, âCulpepper vs. Irwin Mortgage Corp.,â
Martinez
used his HUD sinecure to promulgate rules that lined the pockets of mortgage brokers at the expense of unwitting and uninformed applicants. Payments of âyield spread premiumsâ added untold billions to the cost of mortgages â many of them to the same lower-income, minority borrowers
Martinez
claimed to serve and protect.
Now that tens of thousands of properties are falling into foreclosure, the senatorâs answer is to pick the publicâs pocket again with an âassistanceâ package that has all the earmarks of yet another pork barrel.
The package, according to
Martinez
, can be used to âoffer downpayment and closing-cost assistance to low- and moderate-income homebuyers. State and local governments also have the ability to create land banks to assemble, temporarily manage and dispose of property.â
Translation: If you liked what
Washington
has done to the housing market, just wait until your local governments get a piece of the action.
This is tantamount to bank robbers Bonnie and
Clyde
claiming they were providing âfinancial servicesâ to the community. The only difference is that they didnât get away with it.
ETHNIC PANDERING? SI!
ÂIn 2001, President George W. Bushâs political strategist Karl Rove told the
Washington
Times how Mel Martinezâs role as HUD secretary fit into the administrationâs electoral plans:
ÂâIf youâre a Mexican-American, if Mel Martinez comes to town and talks about his life story and this administrationâs policies to encourage homeownership, and you hear Bush talking a tax cut, education and leaving no child behind, and heâs seen with (Mexican President Vicente) Fox, and the first place he goes when in Europe is Spain â you say, âHey, Bush gets it. Our community is important to this guy.'''Â
http://www.tcpalm.com/news/2008/nov/13/kenric-ward-homewreckers-cisneros-martinez/
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