Sen. Mel Martinez (R) on MSNBC now... claiming McCain "mortgate renegotiation" ...

[krkaufman]

... is not *new spending*, but McCain calling for Paulson to use the allocated $700 billion in the bailout to buy-up the bad mortgages.

They really can't get their story straight. So McCain is calling for Paulson to do something that is NOT part of the bailout legislation that McCain just voted for? Exactly where does the legislation give Paulson the authority for such a use of the bailout funds?

[TwilightGardener]

1. Bwah! They realize how fatal it would be for McStupid to suggest

an all-new way to spend taxpayer "rescue" money on top of the bailout, so now they are in damage control mode!

[Eric J in MN]

2. Henry Paulson can call anything a "troubled asset."

That includes mortgages.

He has the power to buy "troubled assets."

The idea of the bailout money being used to buy mortgages isn't good or bad per se.

It depends on the details. Whether it really helps people in need, and whether the banks have to make some sacrifice (like lowering the principal) so that it isn't just a handout.

[krkaufman]

3. I don't see how the government eating the difference between the original and renegotiated mortgage

... would be a good thing. Nor do I see how doing so would insure a floor in housing prices.

[alcibiades_mystery]

5. It would do neither

It would obliterate market pricing for the entire housing market as everyone rushed to unload their "troubled assets," conditions be damned. It would require a massive bureaucracy and still manage to produce rampant fraud. It's a completely asinine idea.

It's also monumentally unfair: why do the financially prudent who didn't get in over their heads with manifestly stupid loans have to pay for the houses of those who did take out such loans? What the fuck is that about. At least if we're purchasing troubled assets from the banks, we end up with assets and other deliverables. In McCain's plan, we end up with nothing. Zero. It's a stupid fucking idea, unfair and infeasible.

[Supersedeas]

4. *need to find transcript* - didnt' he say this was not the Bush or Paulson plan but HIS plan

[krkaufman]

7. Last night, McCain said "This is my proposal. Not Bush's and not Obama's."

I don't think Obama has a problem with McCain claiming this plan as his own. (see Obama campaign press release)

But I think the Martinez line is a sign that the McCain campaign is now trying to spin McCain's proposal from last night due to backlash from the Right, related to perceptions of another $300 billion in spending. This spin will have problems, though, getting over the emails sent last night by the McCain campaign detailing the plan and estimating the $300 billion cost.

[dbonds]

6. Actually it is a bigger gaff than that...

The power to buy up the loans in the way McCain explained last night was part of the bill that pasted. McCain presented it as his new idea last night. Now Paulson said in his press conference that what McCain called for was already in the bill, it left them scrambling. So they are reworking the statement asking him to exercise that power that was in the bill.

[krkaufman]

8. Ah, ok. Which is what the Obama campaign was saying last night.

Though the Obama campaign is saying today that McCain's plan is a bad one, even if the authority exists.