I see from various points of the blogosphere that the real reason for the financial meltdown is the push for more home loans in poor and minority communities, using impractical instruments like zero-down mortgages. Well, if that's the case, then the electorate should punish the party that had this in it's 2004 platform: [PDF]
Ownership should not be the preserve of the wealthy or the privileged. . . . [We] believe in the power of ownership to create better lives, we want more people to own a home. . . .
Homeownership is central to the American dream, and [we] want to make it a reality for everyone. That starts with access to capital for entrepreneurs and access to credit for consumers. Both have improved immensely in the past four years, resulting in record levels of homeownership. For the first time, more than half of all minorities own their home.
We support the . . . goal of increasing the number of minority homeowners by at least 5.5 million families by the end of the decade. Since . . . 2002, an additional 1.6 million minorities have become homeowners. The Self-Help Homeownership Opportunities Program helps low-income families purchase a home. The most significant barrier to homeownership is the down payment. We support efforts to reduce that barrier, like the American Dream
Downpayment Act and Zero Downpayment Mortgages.
I heard Orrin Hatch blame Bill Cinton for the current market mess. Well, read that and weep, Orrin. A hell of a lot of taxpayers and (ex-)home-owners sure are weeping now, thanks to the GOP.
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Edited 9/11/2012 to change the dead link to the 2004 GOP platform and point it to a live one at archive.org: http://web.archive.org/web/20080216000618/http://www.gop.com/images/2004platform.pdf
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