Fact Checking Obama's Promise of Hope

Listening to President Obama's speech tonight, it sounds all good if only we take whatever we are told at face value. Fortunately, there are always the curious bunch in this country who will always question and investigate. This time, it's a bunch of reporters from the Associated Press. Read their fact-checking article and you will have a better grip on the government's solutions to our current economic mess.

My question is still the same: How are we going to pay for all these stimulus? The answer is too obvious, that is, the future generation of America's taxpayers.

Lots of homeowners want the government to bail them out because they made bad decisions to buy houses that are too expensive for them. They want the government to lower their mortgage, reduce their princpal because the house they bought had decreased in value. Meanwhile, I have yet to hear the government offer people like me who have lots of savings in the battered mutual funds that the government is going to absorb the decrease in investment value ..... (will it be true that if our mutual funds or retirement plans are replenished by the government to their original purchase value, we will all have the downpayment we need to buy the houses that are for sale now, which in turn, will stop the housing price from further falling, which is the government's concern? Such idea sounds absurd but the current mortage bailout plan sounds exactly the same. Why is it the government's responsibity to take everybody's investment risk anyway?) I will never know how the government operates and the logic behind its every stimulus.

After checking out the facts of Mr. President's hopeful speech, I regret that I had not bought a house at the time when I easily could with 10% down (when I was offered 0% down at the time), I was thinking at the time that the house was too overpriced (which I turned out to be right) and I thought I didn't want to pay all that interest... I decided to put my savings in a mutual fund to let it grow while keep on saving until I accumulate $150,000 which is about a 25% downpayment for a decent house in the neighbourhood where I am renting now.

In restrospect, it turned out to be a bad move... , my mutual fund has so much less now than the original 10% downpayment I was holding on to when I was house hunting in 2005. My only hope in buying a house now will be foreclosures of those who shouldn't have jumped into the housing market to jerk up the supply and price in 2005 to begin with. But now that Mr. President is bailing these people out and attempting to stem out foreclosures, I guess I will have to keep renting for a bit longer, until I recope my loss in my mutual fund for my future downpayment.

I wonder if I would be bailed out by President Obama today if I had bought that $800,000 house here in California I loved so much... (in Texas, similar house would be around $300 Ks...). I think it's very likely cause my high mortgage payment to income would have that "ratio" Mr. Obama's stimulus plan calls for to qualify me in his bailout.

Looking at the bright side though, I don't have children who will be the ones to inherit all these debts that the governments of my time have been drawing money on... I know that I won't be blamed by my children to be ripping them off because of my selfish indulgence and irresponsibility. I know that I won't be seeing my children work harder but keep much less money than I do. I am just very glad I don't have children. I can't bear the struggle they will have if I do.

All and all, Obama's speech did make me feel hopeful, even for a short little while. I have to say he is a truly great speaker. He can be a great motivational coach if he is not the President of the U.S.A.