Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney is scheduled to conduct a fundraiser in San Diego Sunday, one day after releasing his housing plan which would reduce the role of government and increase the role of the private sector.
The plan calls for:
-- reforming the government-sponsored enterprises Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac;
-- selling the 200,000 vacant foreclosed homes owned by the government;
-- making foreclosure alternatives easier;
-- replacing the Dodd-Frank Act with "sensible regulation" that would allow banks to approve loans to families with good credit; and
-- improving the job market.
"The politicians should have realized that when you interfere with the market -- as they did with Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and with their home ownership initiatives -- bad things can happen," Romney said.
According to information supplied by the White House, the administration of Romney's Democratic opponent, President Barack Obama, has:
-- made it easier for borrowers who are current on their federally backed mortgages to take advantage of refinancing at historically low interest rates;
-- proposed further simplifying and expanding eligibility for existing refinancing programs;
-- helped more than 5 million families stay in their homes through modified mortgages;
-- provided the unemployed the opportunity to delay mortgage payments for one year;
-- began the $23.5 billion Housing Finance Agencies Initiative to help more than 90 state and local housing financing agencies provide assistance to home owners and renters;
-- supported the First Time Homebuyer Tax Credit;
-- created the $7.6 billion HFA Hardest Hit Fund to support foreclosure prevention programs; and
-- started the Emergency Homeowners Loan Program, a provision of the Dodd-Frank Act.
Sunday's fundraiser will be Romney's third in California in six days, following events in Costa Mesa Monday and San Francisco Friday.
-City News Service
