Can't afford your house? Here is an easy fix, let taxpayers do it.
 

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Unemployed? Owe more on your mortgage than your home is worth? Your state might one day pay your mortgage.

Giving people free money to cover their home loans is just one of the radical ways that four states -- Florida, Michigan, California and Arizona -- plan to use $1.4 billion the Obama administration is sending their way to help the unemployed and underwater avoid foreclosure.

Many consumer advocates have said the government should help cover the payments of these troubled homeowners, lest the mortgage crisis continue spinning out of control and dragging down everyone's property values. But other housing experts warn that paying off loans creates a moral hazard and could actually dissuade people from looking for work.

Innovative programs, however, are exactly what the administration was hoping for when it unveiled the Hardest Hit Fund initiative in February. Officials are looking to help the unemployed and underwater, who are now at the heart of the crisis. Despite the administration's best efforts to stabilize the market, home prices are still sliding and foreclosure filings are at record highs.

Link

Damn, where is all of this money coming from???

And how can I get in on that? Oh, wait, I have a stable job and pay my mortgage on time every month. Damn you, responsibility.

^^^ aren't you noticing some extra lint balls in your pockets too??

I wouldn't know, they're turned inside-out. ;)

Haaa!!!!!

Government safety nets are what we have expected from the government for generations. And "we" means everyone and includes services like wealthfare (for the well-off) and welfare. But, finding solutions and safety nets is never fool proof. Perhaps there is a way to extend the mortgage credit with proof the person is looking for employment or even doing odd jobs to make money.*** Similar to how unemployment checks work. TECHNICALLY, people are not supposed to receive unemployment if they aren't seeking a job. Of course, it doesn't work that way most of the time and the poor and uneducated aren't always the ones stiffing the system.

Hence...'bail out'.

I'm moving to another country.

Okay...I've gotta plan! When I get to Phoenix, I'll divorce my husband, make him buy the house, and we'll make the state of AZ buy it for us! He's unemployed! Genius! Who thinks of this stuff?

Won't work. I live in another country and I still have to file U.S. taxes. :(

I wasn't serious, I was posting out of anger. But I'm curious, Why?

Because he's a US citizen. You don't remember Wesley Snipes getting in trouble for tax evasion for not paying taxes while working on films in Europe?

I figured that. I would just keep filing U.S. taxes until I was a citizen of that particular country.

Obama sure is handing out a ton of freebies. He definitely won't be getting my vote again.

AOII Angel is correct. U.S. citizens need to file for U.S. taxes regardless of where they live. The U.S. is one of the few countries that requires this (though I hear the U.K. is also considering this now). Tax treaty agreements take much of the bite out of taxes payable, but it's still a hassle to file for U.S. taxes in addition to the taxes of the foreign country in which one presently resides.

(Oh, and I assumed you weren't serious, cheerfulgreek, when I replied. :) )

[QUOTE=cheerfulgreek;1927804]
Obama sure is handing out a ton of freebies. QUOTE]

But some people don't realize that this money has to come from somewhere, and as we're pretty much past our credit limit with other countries... it's coming from my wallet. There's a car that parks somewhat near mine at work that has a bumper sticker saying "Honk if I pay your mortgage". I thought it was funny, and now I just think it's sad.

What about those people who are on the brink of home ownership? Those that will have to pay more taxes (as the taxes used for programs like these can't all come from only the people making over $200k/year) so their budgets are stretched and also that the place they were looking at to buy now has even higher property taxes that they can't afford. This is starting to sound like the gentrification thread now... pardon my ranting...

Obama isn't handing out the freebies, the conservative states of Florida and Arizona along with Michigan and California are choosing to use money approved by the federal government to help homeowners avoid foreclosures. Blame the states for their dumb ideas. It's funny how the blame percolates directly to the top even when the process goes exactly how everyone says it should..."Let the states decide how to fix their problems."

Well, thanks for telling me that. I didn't know it was the states. But Obama is still all talk, no action.

WTF? Even if you don't like the guy you have to admit he has done some things. Are you expecting him to wave a magic wand and fix all the problems this country is having?

THIS.

[QUOTE=AnotherKD;1927812]Yep this.

This situation is straight bull****.

States are pretty cash strapped right now and this is about as irresponsible and shortsighted a use of taxpayer money as I can possibly imagine.

Would you shut up? Seriously. I didn't expect him to wave some "magic wand". Everyone thinks he's God's gift to the world, and to me, he hasn't done anything that any other US president hasn't done or attempted to do.

[QUOTE=Kevin;1927824]The quote thing is all messed up. lol I didn't say this.

Wooosahhhhh, muthafuckas, damn.

Oh I agree. But I noticed that most people look at Obama one of two ways. He either walks on water, or is the Antichrist. He is just a man like any other president. He has been in office for less then 2 years, and like or not he did manage to get something done that has been tried for decades.

I don't disagree. The problem is, that at some point, you can't have a neighborhood with 30% abandoned homes either. That's what causes property taxes to go up right as property values go down! That's the main problem in Arizona and Florida right now. Remember also that Obama isn't the only one throwing money at the problem. That all started with the Republicans and George Bush. No one wants to hear that but it bears repeating because it is true. The economy has so little to do with the government, and all the government can really do is keep citizens from falling off the edge without pushing the country into complete bankruptcy. This is an easy program to criticize, but where are you going to really cut the budget? Military spending? We're in the middle of two wars! Unemployement? We have 10% unemployment and the job market is just starting to show minimal signs of improvement. Medicare? Do you really want the AARP after your ass? The deficit is nice to cry about, but remember that both sides had an even hand in running it up and a recession is not the time to worry about paying it down.

o.k. fine, and I'm not denying that. But just because I don't agree with those decisions he's made, or your post, you don't have to "OMG WTF JESUS CHRIST YOU HATE OBAMA" on me. Calm down. Relax. Not everyone is going to have the same thought process.

[QUOTE=AOII Angel;1927829]This makes sense, but we're in two wars we don't need to be involved in. You can't win a war on terror. We're fighting an ideal not a war. How do you win that? You can't. And then we're trying to set up a puppet government in Iraq.

Amen, sister! I don't think anyone has figured out how to get us out of there gracefully without looking like we are leaving people to die, women to be suppressed and countries to fall under the rule of repressive, terrorist regimes. But that's an argument for a different thread!;)

BTW, quoting is totally FUBAR!

[QUOTE=AOII Angel;1927834]lol lol
I don't know how it got this way. Hilarious! :p

It got that way because you all don't know how to fix the [/quote] boxes before you submit a post.

Womp Womp.

boxes before you submit a post.

Womp Womp.[/QUOTE]
lol
I tried to fix it, but it didn't work.

eta: omg! and it's still messed up. lol

For some reason it's inserting an extra Quote command. I just deleted it and all's well.

This.

Did I say that? All I said was there was no way you could say that he is all talk and no action. He has taken several actions. Now whither they are the right one or not I'm not going to say. But he is trying stuff.

LOL

It's the simple things in life that trip some people up. :p ;)

Fix the brackets, make sure there's only one quote bracket, and when you quoted my post I had put an extra bracket on purpose that needed removal.

I bet it's a Windows issue...hehhe

As for whether or not Obama walks on water, he doesn't. He's just a man. Sure, everyone thought he was the second coming of Kennedy, who incidentally was just a man, too. People just got their HOPEs a little too inflated. I learned a long time ago that the President is more of a figurehead than anything. Bush was an embarrassing figurehead, so I have to give Obama credit for that improvement. Campaign promises are about as useless as the ones you hear during HS Student Body President campaigns..."I promise I'll get you every other Friday off!!" Did it every happen? No, but everybody voted for the guy because they are stupid. That's politics.

That being said, I like Obama. He thinks about things. I'll wait to see how the next couple years go before I promise my vote to someone else.

It's not what you said, it was the way you said it by posting those stupid, unnecessary 3rd grade comments simply because I have a different opinion than you do. Grow up. I said that he is all talk and no action because he's not doing anything that hasn't been done or attempted before. If he wants to do the right thing, he can start by getting us out of a war/ideal that has no end, like he said he was going to do. I'm still waiting.

lol lol
I was wondering why only part of the post looked right. Good one, good one.:p

Anything to make these uptight threads lighthearted. :p

Did Angel really respond to whether Obama walks on water? LOL. :p

lol
You are making me laugh so freaking hard. lol