Small wonder that Congress' approval ratings are wallowing down around 14 percent these days. They could go even lower, too, by the time the World's Greatest Deliberative Body's latest Foreclosure Rescue Plan plays out. Have you heard about it? This legislative barf-bag is already attracting its share of flies, and it's not even law yet. Everyone wants a piece, and the Congressional Black Caucus of course thinks that it doesn't do enough to address the needs of African Americans. (For a complete list of all others whose needs may not have been adequately addressed, please consult the national phone directory on the Internet.) But, get this, some allegedly Conservative "Blue Dog" Democrats have the chutzpah to ask who's going to pay for it. Not to worry, since it will only be providing a measly $300 billion to the FHA, which would channel the money to "distressed" homeowners. Too bad taxpayers were not given the option of betting it all on the spin of a Big Six wheel. At least that would have given them a sporting chance of seeing a return on their money. The shaping of this legislative turd has been duly reported on the news pages of the Wall Street Journal, but you have to read Tuesday's lead story to get a bracing whiff of it. What it will provide, first of all, are the kind of mortgage loans that led to the "subprime mess" in the first place -- which is to say, loans to homebuyers who cannot come up with a downpayment. The private sector is no longer making such loans, and the FHA itself has told its benefactors on Capitol Hill that it no longer wants to make them either. Of course, that didn't prevent the bill from sailing through Congress. As Thomas Sowell once said,
LATEST TRADES
