It's time for President Bush and Republicans in the Senate to stop playing politics and agree to support a plan to help rescue hundreds of thousands of families, including Marylanders, who are in danger of losing their homes to foreclosure. Mr. Bush has blasted the legislative plan agreed upon by a bipartisan majority in the House as a bailout for speculators and irresponsible borrowers, but his criticism is unfair. It's going to cost homeowners and lenders who participate in the rescue plan, but the nation will pay a heavier price if they aren't helped.
Lenders choosing to participate in the rescue plan would have to take a significant loss, allowing borrowers to replace their original high-interest-rate mortgages with more-affordable loans worth no more than 90 percent of their homes' new, lower value.
Plummeting home prices are having a serious effect on local government budgets, and declining home sales are having a broader negative impact on the economy. In recent days, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke, Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. and other Bush administration officials have spoken positively of the House plan cobbled together by Rep. Barney Frank, chairman of the Financial Services Committee, with input from Republicans. Mr. Bernanke has warned that a rising tide of foreclosures is the most serious economic threat the nation faces.
