Dan Gainor
2007-12-11 08:00:00.0
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BALTIMORE -

You’ve heard the expression “mortgage your future?” Some of your fellow Americans decided to do just that. That’s the reason for the subprime bailout move last week that made all those headlines.

President Bush gave the mortgage industry an offer it couldn’t refuse — do something or government will make you do so. He didn’t leave a horse’s head in their bed, but he came close.

Unsurprisingly, private industry decided to take action to help some of the borrowers who were having problems paying their subprime mortgages.

Don’t blame them. They got “caught up” in the housing boom. They borrowed too much or got rates that adjusted or will adjust higher than they can afford.

Far too many of them were either stupid or greedy.

Just as many businesses got greedy lending them money.

I can hear the letters to the editor being typed already. So hear me out. As regular readers of this column know, I bought a house in 2007. I had been considering a purchase for several years, but waited.

I thought the market was overvalued and there were lots of warnings that it might adjust. When that correction began, I went shopping. That didn’t make me unique or even particularly smart. It just made me cautious.

Then, when I bought a house, I made sure I bought something I could afford and arranged for a fixed-rate mortgage. I didn’t get an adjustable rate that would move higher because it almost had nowhere to go but up.

The bailout won’t help me. What a shock.

It will help a couple hundred thousand people who were paying their current mortgages but didn’t have the ability to pay more. Some of them undoubtedly deserved help. People do lose jobs, get sick or have family crises that limit their ability to pay the bills. Those people have earned our sympathy.

What about the speculators? CBS used an example of one family that already paid 6.6 percent and an increase up to 9.6 percent loomed. If you looked closely, you would know why. Their house was monstrously huge, with room enough for the family horse. (That’s not a joke.)

Pardon my lack of concern. Where is their responsibility?

If you spend more than earn and run into debt, it’s your own darn fault. Buy less. Live more simply. Wait a while before you go shopping. Rub a couple brain cells together and make a good decision.

And don’t expect the rest of us to help you out when the wolves come calling.

The reaction to the bailout has been swift. Ordinary citizens are disgusted. They played by the rules and don’t want to help those who didn’t. Democrats like Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) want even more government intervention.

She might get her wish. Politicians are wimps when comparing votes with sanity. The Democratic leadership will push for us to pay outright to help even more borrowers — digging the nation further into debt and mortgaging our future in the process.

Dan Gainor can be seen each week on Thursday afternoons on the new Fox Business Network. He is the T. Boone Pickens free market fellow at the Media Research Center’s Business & Media Institute, a career journalist and media commentator. He can be reached at gainorcolumn@gmail.com.