Opinion: Maxine Waters’ mortgage bailout bill, ‘bad idea’ whose time shouldn’t come

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Rep. Maxine Waters, who frequently seems to have something critical to say about other people, comes under not a little heat now from our blogging colleague over at L.A. Land.

Seems she’s jumped on the foreclosure bailout bandwagon, proposing and successfully prompting the House of Representatives to pass a bill spending some $15 billion of taxpayers’ money to run out and buy foreclosed houses. Rep. Barney Frank has another mortgage rescue bill. But he’s not from California, so who cares about him?

As blogger Peter Viles puts it about Waters’ measure: ‘Giving local governments money to buy houses is a sweet deal for lenders -- they get a willing buyer with cash who is also a clueless negotiator. And do you really trust your government to go shopping for bank-owned properties without playing favorites?’

His whole commentary is available right now right here at L.A. Land.

-- Andrew Malcolm