Occupy Wall Street Wakes-Up President Obama
Posted by Michael A. Kamperman on October 30, 2011
The Occupy Wall Street movement has already had two huge successes. First and foremost it has altered the debate from deficit cutting at all costs back to lack of jobs are the number one issue America is facing, not deficits. Secondly, it has given our President a much needed wake-up call that it’s all about jobs, jobs, jobs. Finally, the President has made a couple of moves in the right direction. He has acknowledged many graduating students have student loan payments that are too high for their too low incomes. He has also moved forward to insist that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac refinance mortgages that are current without an appraisal and without a new title insurance plan forcing the transfer of the existing plan to the refinanced mortgage. But why not offer the same terms to FHA and VA mortgages? Why not offer the same terms to all mortgages held by all federally backed financial institutions like banks and credit unions? And where have these low hanging fruit moves been hiding at the White House? These moves should have been made months before the last election, not months before this one. The reason these moves are being made now is the President is feeling political pressure from the Occupy Wall Street movement. The lost and forgotten have risen up and the President has sat up and taken notice.
Now the President finds himself boxed in by the deficit cutting super-committee he approvingly signed off on just a couple of months ago. In fact, if a deal is not reached on how to lower the deficit, then across the board cuts will automatically go in on all discretionary spending, including defense. If the President is serious about helping the young people motivated to have their voices heard, then he will reject any deal that cuts their future Medicare and Social Security benefits period! It is the wrong way for our country to go and it is not necessary. Secondly, he needs to give up his politically charged class warfare rhetoric about raising taxes on the rich and call for the passage of jobs bill by using all of the savings from the ended Iraq war as the pay for. The jobs bill has a chance to put some of those young people into a good job, while raising Warren Buffet’s taxes may feel good but it won’t create one single job.
The Occupy Wall Street movement is also providing cover for the Federal Reserve to move forward on quantitative easing 3, probably this week. In Ben Bernanke’s famous helicopter speech he talked about the importance of coordinating monetary policy with fiscal policy despite the supposed independence of monetary authorities. Look for the fed to go big once again on purchasing mortgages to lower the cost of refinancing distressed mortgages even further. This is sound policy and will even be more effective if the President expands it to all federally backed mortgages. I want to give a shout out to Chris Wallace who criticized Rick Perry’s jobs plan for only aiming to create a far too insufficient 2.5 million jobs. Finally someone in the media is asking where are the plans to create tens of millions of jobs. Wake-up President Obama, he is talking about you too.
