A chicken in every pot, a Ford in every garage, a homeowner in every home

Last week I quoted a talk by President Bush in 2002 in which he strongly backed the expansion of home ownership to minorities via the removal of ordinary credit standards. It was very damaging to Bush, and it also showed the partisanship of Ann Coulter, who had attacked the Democrats for celebrating the expansion of subprime home ownership while she let her readers believe that the Republicans had opposed it. The text of Bush’s 2002 remarks came from Liberty Post.org but, as it turns out, the transcription was less than perfect. Here is a must-see YouTube video of his remarks, from which I’ve transcribed a short but key segment that roughly corresponds with what I posted earlier but is 100 percent accurate:

We want everyone in America to own their own home. An ownership society is a compassionate society. Two thirds of all Americans own their homes, yet we have a problem here in America because fewer than half the Hispanics and half the African Americans own their own home. It’s a home ownership gap.

Bush went on to say that his goal was that by the end of the decade, ALL Americans would own their own home. Why? Why must all Americans own their own homes? Where did such a ridiculous idea come from? From the same president who said, “No Child Left Behind.” From a “big-government conservative” president who advances “conservative” goals (such as home ownership), with socialist means.

He also said that welfare recipients would be allowed to buy homes and pay the mortgages with funds from section 8. Mortgages through Section 8! One of our most damaging and unjust laws, which supplies rental supplements to low income persons and welfare recipients allowing them to rent homes in and degrade middle class neighborhoods all over America, and Bush wanted to expand this racial-socialist disaster from home rental to home ownership. (However, Bush’s 2002 proposal apparently was never enacted, since in Wikipedia’s article on section 8 there is no mention of a mortgage program.)

Bush declared that the goal of 100 percent home ownership in America was prevented by “barriers,” such as bad credit history and lack of money to make a down payment. He said that government’s role was to help people overcome those barriers. To this end he proposed the American Dream Downpayment Fund, though which the government would provide persons with down payment to buy a home.

Did you ever hear such a socialistic formula as that lack of income and a poor credit history are “barriers” to home ownership, which government must remove? That’s like saying that if I don’t have the ability to be a concert pianist, there is a barrier preventing me from being a concert pianist, and the government should remove this barrier by renting out Carnegie Hall and paying 2,004 people to sit in the audience so that I have give a concert there to a full house.

At Free Republic where the Bush YouTube was linked, it set off quite a reaction. It sounds like the final demise of the Bush presidency, for those people who still believed in it.

One poster said:

Even better that you found it. Doing our side real good! Hey could you post some Pro-Obama You-Tubes links as well?

Others roundly rejected this approach. One commenter said:

>> Doing our side real good!

Hmmm… I don’t know what “our side” is.

The only thing I can speak about with any authority is *my* side. And *my* side is—I want to know the WHOLE TRUTH about this mess. I want to know who screwed up and how so maybe we can keep it from happening again. I don’t care what letter is by their name—if a politician was wrong or corrupt, I want to KNOW.

What’s YOUR side?

Here are some other comments:

see for the world to be equal, the USA must be brought down a peg or two…or three…it’s all for the good. don’t be a sourpuss…soon there won’t be any racial problems because w’ll all be a warm coffee color, and there won’t be anyreligious tension because we’ll all believe the govt and do away with the old superstitions. we will all be equal except for our leaders who live on that golden hill,…w3e never see them, we just hear thier warm voices in our heads, soothing us and guiding us in harmony…isn’t that nice?

Another:

Man, that is heartbreaking to listen to.

I cringed when he said those things initially and here I was cringing all over again.

Another:

Bush has gone around the bend. Poor people should have mansions too, even if they cannot afford it. Uncle Sam will pay.

Another:

No, this is fair. Bush said these things. If you were wondering how the federal debt doubled under Bush…. now you know. In all things other than the WoT he has been abysmal.

Now we know why McCain and Bush have not attacked the Democrats for the Fannie and Freddie problems…. Bush’s finger prints are all over this thing as well.

Another:

This explains a lot of Bush’s recent behavior. He has been essentially AWOL in this debate. Paulson was his emmisary to try to get the quick fix so that expose’s like this would never see the light of day. In all matters, other than the ‘war on terror’ Bush, the compasionate conservative, is a moderate-liberal democrat….

Another:

This should be no surprise to anyone who’s stayed reasonably informed since Bush took office. He has often crowed about the “ownership society” and that was echoed by many party spokesmen. He also bragged about the increase in minority home ownership often. Nothing new in that video.

Republicans are also culpable on some deregulation. I’ve thought since this crisis broke that the Dems. are about two-thirds responsible and Republicans one-third responsible. But McCain still needs to hit back harder where the Dems. are responsible, as they set in motion the laws and rule changes that resulted in so many loans to unqualified borrowers. Bush just kept it going and bragged about it.

Another:

What a disaster

Bush is a naive fool

Most of the democrats do things like this to get votes and keep their black base happy

Bush does it because he believes it

Well they say the road to hell is paved with good intentions

He is so OUT OF TOUCH

He actually believes the Compassionate Conservative crap

- end of initial entry -

October 2

Ben W. writes:

You quote President Bush regarding “barriers” to home ownership. What does this word “barriers” mean for liberals and compassionate conservatives when they listen to Bush’s speech? Where do these barriers come from—history, the majority, institutions? Is it the government’s responsibility to clear these barriers?

LA replies:

Obviously, “barrier” denotes something artificial and external to the minorities, something that is preventing them from attaining something that, in the absence of the barriers, they would attain. Bush doesn’t say whether the various barriers come from history, the majority, or institutions, and it doesn’t matter. As “barriers,” they are external to the minorities, and they are preventing the minorities from sharing equally in a good of American society. Therefore the barriers must be removed.

“Barriers” is a classic liberal concept, going back to Rousseau’s “Discourse on the Origins and Foundations of Inequality” (which is short, not hard to read, and indispensable reading for all conservatives), in which he argues that in a pre-civilized state men were equal, and that civilization makes them unequal. In other words, it is society that causes inequality between men, and therefore it is society’s responsibility to remove inequality.

Flyboy writes:

This principle applies equally well in the opposite direction—remove all barriers by making everyone EQUALLY POOR, i.e., reduce everyone to the lowest common denominator in an egalitarian society (Rousseau’s “pre-civilized state” where men were equal). And isn’t this the actual goal of the “green” global warming movement?

LA replies:

Absolutely. The soul torturing inequality between successful and unsuccessful, rich and poor, knowledgeable and ignorant, confident and anxious, happy and resentful, is to make everyone equally unsuccessful, poor, ignorant, anxious, and resentful.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at October 01, 2008 11:28 PM | Send