User profile: judgesmales

Only Democrats could be stupid enough to embrace being the Party of Yes.

When it comes to spending more of our tax dollars and money borrowed from China on programs devoted to societal leeches, the Dems say Yes every time, no matter how silly the program is, or how badly it penalizes those of us who wind up paying the tab.

The Democrats will learn in 2010 that they can't say Yes to everything. The voters won't stand for it.

Great letter, Carmine, but don't strain yourself trying to talk sense to the Sun.

You can offer up all the facts you can find and expose their hipocrisy and it still won't matter. They are in the tank for Obama and his policies of "wealth redistribution" from the producers to the leeches, and there's no changing their minds.

Amazing that a newspaper that seizes every opportunity to "call out" Fox News or Rush Limbaugh for bias and "extremism" has gone so far to the loony left that it is just as polarizing as Fox or Rush have ever been. None are so blind ...

CityCemetary will not be ready to lead any such "recovery." This place does not look welcoming to the every-day gambler in any way, shape or form. It just seems like a hodgepodge of hard-to-identify buildings set too far off the road. Mark my words, not the happy-talk nonsense of Jim Murren: this place is a white elephant.

Don't be confused by my stance on no principle modifications. That doesn't mean I think homeowners must remain shackled to an underwater mortgage. By all means mail in the keys and walk away! When I said "deal with it," that's one of the options I was talking about.

I think there is plenty of blame on all sides, but there has already been too much moral hazard added to the equation by the banker bailouts, etc. If banks start doing principle writedowns for delinquent borrowers, it turns into another penalty for those have kept current on their bills.

Also, a lot of "stuff" was purchased with HELOC's and re-fi cash. SUVs, boats, etc. If the banks voluntarily chop someone's mortgage from $400,000 to $300,000 or less, they're essentially getting their Hummer or boat for free. And who do you think will eventually have to recapitalize the banks when their sorry balance sheets send them back to the gov't, hat in hand? The taxpayer, you bet. Well, I don't feel like paying for people's SUVs and other toys.

By all means, "efficient breach" of a contract works both ways. The deal was: you pay on your mortgage or the bank takes the house back. Well, the banks don't want the overvalued houses back, and that's why they're dragging their feet on default notices and follow-ups. They'd prefer people just kept paying, but that's fantasy land.

That doesn't mean the underwater homeowner can't exercise "efficient breach" as well. Businesses do it every day, and so should "the little guy." If you can't/won't perform on the loan, make the bank take the house back (they have to take it), absorb your credit-score hit and go on your way. By the time houses are worth buying again -- four or five years, maybe -- your credit will be plenty good enough to buy another house if you desire.

No principal modifications. Period.

You gambled on buying a house in a rising market. In fact, you counted on prices continuing to climb so you could re-fi. But the market went bust. You lost. The value went down. Deal with it.