Source:
ABCABC News' Teddy Davis and Arnab Datta Report: John McCain's $300 billion mortgage buy-up plan may require new funds, according to a Thursday interview the Arizona senator gave to ABC News' Charles Gibson.
Asked if his mortgage plan would be "new money or part of the $700 billion" already appropriated by Congress for the Wall Street bailout, McCain said, "part of the $700 billion, new money, if necessary."
"Look," he continued, "in one day they wiped out $1.2 trillion when it dropped 700 points. And I'm not throwing this money around lightly. But if the housing values continue to go down, there's no floor. There's no turnaround here. We all know what was the catalyst for this catastrophe. And that was Fannie and Freddie."
The Obama campaign reacted to the Gibson-McCain interview by charging that the Arizona senator's plan "just keeps getting worse."
Read more:
http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalradar/2008/10/mccain-new-mone.html
here it is:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-OEhtufO4wDouglas Holtz-Eakin and Nora O'Donnell on John McCain
"MSNBC Live" 3:33pm
Interview
TRANSCRIPTION
DOUGLAS HOLTZ-EAKIN:
not costing the taxpayers more money. The congress has already put on the table $700B to help financial institutions. In an earlier bill $300B for the FHA to guarantee mortgages. All Senator McCain is saying, 'Look, if we're gonna commit that kind of money from the taxpayers, let's target it to the people who need some help <...>.'
NORA O'DONNELL: ow can you claim that this kind of plan has absolutely no price tag? What you're proposing is that the government absorb the full cost of renegotiating essentially these mortgages so that a borrower doesn't end up losing their home. Somebody's gotta pay for it.
HOLTZ-EAKIN: We've already committed to paying. <...>
O'DONNELL: ho are you talking about, 'We've already committed to spending the money'? Who?
HOLTZ-EAKIN: The Congress of the United States passed, the president signed a bailout bill with $700B in it. <...>
DHE2 JM MSNBC 10-09-08 15.33 (JR#528)