Builders: No Soup for You! Come Back One Year!
What is funnier than this, I cannot imagine. My sides ache from reading it. (Dear Lord, please make it stop!)
To wit:
"The lobbying group representing homebuilders is cutting off contributions to federal congressional campaigns, saying lawmakers and the Bush administration have not done enough to stabilize the housing market.
The National Association of Home Builders said Tuesday its political action committee has decided to stop making contributions to candidates for Congress "until further notice."
Since 1990, the trade group has given nearly $20 million to federal candidates, with 35 percent going to Democrats and 65 percent to Republicans, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.
Lawmakers and the Bush administration, "have not adequately addressed the underlying economic issues that would help to stabilize the housing sector and keep the economy moving forward," the trade group's president, Brian Catalde said in a statement. "More needs to be done to jump-start housing and ensure the economy does not fall into a recession."
Gee, weren't these the same folks who were begging for rate cuts in 2001/02? Didn't they keep cheering when Greenie took rates down to 1%?
The builders group must be saying to themselves: How could you have made us build all those homes! What were you thinking?
I guess the concept of personal responsibility has little meaning to lobbyists. . .
Source:
Builders: No More Campaign Contributions
Tuesday February 12, 5:58 pm ET
Homebuilders Lobbying Group Cuts Off Contributions to Federal Congressional Campaigns
http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/080212/homebuilders_campaign.html?.v=2
Wednesday, February 13, 2008 | 12:47 PM | Permalink
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Comments
God that was funny!
Grumps from Chumps! Letum eat dirt.
Posted by: Ross | Feb 13, 2008 12:58:13 PM
All we need now is a press release from the National Association of Realtors saying that recovery of the housing market will now begin by mid-2008, because the hard-nosed stance of the NAHB will prod Congress to take action.
Posted by: ottnott | Feb 13, 2008 1:01:45 PM
Maybe its really because they are broke.
Posted by: Bubbles | Feb 13, 2008 1:04:40 PM
what do they expect the politicos to do???
I saw that last night and laughed so hard.....the pundit reporting it also said that the N.A.R. "might" follow the lead.
Ciao
MS
Posted by: michael schumacher | Feb 13, 2008 1:10:56 PM
Barry,
Seems to me "the concept of personal responsibility has little meaning" to Americans in general.
Posted by: John | Feb 13, 2008 1:13:20 PM
Why is the Lesley Gore song
"It's My Party and I'll Cry If I Want To"
suddenly reverberating through my noggin ?
Posted by: Doug Watts | Feb 13, 2008 1:14:40 PM
Maybe they can just rehire all those Mexicans as lobbyists. Save some coin.
Posted by: Kp | Feb 13, 2008 1:18:46 PM
Dataquick has posted numbers for 6 counties in California today. It's so shocking that you should be sitting down. The gist of it is:
9,983 homes were sold in Los Angeles, Orange, San Diego, Riverside, San Bernardino and Ventura counties in January, a drop of nearly 50 percent from the same month last year.
Home sales in the region were down nearly 25 percent from December's 13,240, the real estate research firm said.
http://www.cnbc.com/id/23147568/for/cnbc/
Posted by: karen | Feb 13, 2008 1:20:44 PM
What we should do, in the interest of "we the people", is station troops with miniguns in front of the capital building so when the morning horde of "special interest" lobbyists assault our congressmen.....mow 'em down.
A nice "arc light" run down K Street would help some too.
Posted by: MowEmDown | Feb 13, 2008 1:21:16 PM
This is called the John Kruk move - taking your ball and going home.
Posted by: E | Feb 13, 2008 1:23:22 PM
I guess the concept of personal responsibility has little meaning to lobbyists. . .
I think Tanta put it best:
[T]hat’s all just fine and dandy until it blows up, then the free marketers scurry to the government looking for help getting out from under a pile of exploding loans. That’s hardly surprising, given that anyone who willingly put borrowers into loans like this is, objectively speaking, a sociopath. If you expected them to take their licks like grownups, you don’t understand much about the essential dynamics of sociopathology.
Posted by: Andrew Foland | Feb 13, 2008 1:26:01 PM
@ E
"Screw you guys....I'm going home." - Eric Cartman
Posted by: Kp | Feb 13, 2008 1:31:00 PM
Since I am now functionally insolvent, I will stand on principle and not donate to any politician. What backbone!
Posted by: larry | Feb 13, 2008 1:31:52 PM
"Personal responsibility" is for the poor.
Posted by: it's good to be the king | Feb 13, 2008 1:42:20 PM
Here's another guy that wishes Congress would re-inflate the housing market. This guy is going to lose 1 million dollars when he sells his house!
Terrell Owens lowered the asking price of his Moorestown mansion, to $2.96 million from $3.4 million. He paid $3.9 million in 2004 for the spread.
I bet the locals and states are going to start screaming too. Once this house, (and others) are revalued at a 25% loss. The tax base shrinks, they will have to make it up with a higher tax rate.
http://www.philly.com/philly/entertainment/columnists/20080210_Inqlings__Did_shady_faux_Bono_fool_U2_.html
Posted by: Michael Donnelly | Feb 13, 2008 1:46:24 PM
All of the primary graft-takers are leaving office at the end of this term to, “spend more time with their families.” NAHB is trying to sever ties so that they can claim clean hands before investigations begin and indictments are handed down. NAHBs statement is a tacit admission that they paid their money on the expectation of Federal legislation being drafted in their favor. Wait until the State and County zoning and permit investigations begin.
Posted by: Marcus Aurelius | Feb 13, 2008 1:54:35 PM
You think that's funny, go over to Jalopnik.com and check out the story - with accompanying video - about the idiot in CA who leased a $100k + BMW M6 convertible that she couldn't afford. What's so funny about that? Well, the purchaser is on disability, so her gross income is all of $2300/month, of which $1300 per month alone is now accounted for by the lease payments. In addition, she put $30k down, in the form of credit card advances and "her life savings". But now she's claiming it wasn't her fault, since the dealer falsified her income on the paperwork (which she still signed, even knowing that her income was overstated).
As if the dealer held a gun to her head and made her buy the car!
Face it, ladies and gents, in this country, the whole notion of personal responsibility is dead. D.E.A.D.
Posted by: A. Melmotte | Feb 13, 2008 2:00:57 PM
Glengarry Glenross:
"I'm going back to Wisconsin."
-- Dave Moss
Posted by: Doug Watts | Feb 13, 2008 2:01:14 PM
I think I heard a reference on Bubblevision that Dennis Kneale used to work for Steve Forbes. I thought he would be more buff after years of loading trucks with bundles of heavy magazines.
Posted by: Street Creds | Feb 13, 2008 2:04:16 PM
Michael Donnelly:
T.O. still hasn't sold that house? Damn!! That house has been on the market for 2+ yaers now. Ever since that mess in his second year with the Eagles.
Posted by: Joe Klein's conscience | Feb 13, 2008 2:06:55 PM
The reason T.O. can't sell his house is because disgruntled Eagles fans have literally camped out in front of it, and harrass anyone who comes to look at it. These are the same fans who cheered when Michael Irvin broke his neck.
Although I must admit, in both cases I sympathized with the fans.
Posted by: E | Feb 13, 2008 2:10:49 PM
Personal responsibility is for the little people.
I'm hoping to double down on the youwalkaway IPO.
Posted by: Roger Bigod | Feb 13, 2008 2:15:03 PM
Oh ye of little faith - just wait until the NRF gets into the game.
But just for the record the highest performing ETF funds over the last 4 weeks are real estate related. See you cynics are going to miss the housing recovery and the opportunity to buy the builders at great prices.
What was that Dirk Bentley song (if anybody here listens to C&W)...oh yeah, "What WAS I Thinking ?"
Posted by: dblwyo | Feb 13, 2008 2:24:54 PM
AND it's not about to get any better any time soon either..
U.S. credit crisis escalates as mortgage defaults spread
Submitted by cpowell on 11:49AM ET Wednesday, February 13, 2008. Section: Daily Dispatches
By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard
The Telegraph, London
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/2008/02/13/cnusa113.xml
Posted by: Stuart | Feb 13, 2008 2:37:12 PM
LOL!
God, do I wish all lobbyists would do the same.
One can only dream...
Posted by: Francois | Feb 13, 2008 2:45:20 PM
