From Homescape

With recent polls showing many Americans concerned about the economy and home foreclosures particularly high in Nevada, all three Democratic candidates at Tuesday night’s presidential debate in Sin City said they want to provide relief to middle- and working-class families.

Hillary Clinton said she wants a moratorium on foreclosures for 90 days and would freeze interest rates for five years. John Edwards and Barack Obama both urged crackdowns on predatory lenders and said people in bankruptcy due to expensive health care costs should get immediate help.

Aside from the brief two-minute sound bites, there has been very little discussion or debate among the presidential candidates, Republicans included, about an economic plan to lift the housing market out from the quicksand. Although housing accounts for only 5 percent of the economy, the slump has already dented consumer spending, which makes up two-thirds of the country’s economic pie. Price declines are also limiting homeowners’ ability to move or to tap home-equity loans. And job losses are heavy in housing-related industries. It wasn’t until last week that both Obama and Clinton unveiled a detailed economic stimulus plan to help stave off a recession.

Crafting a housing market solution
While the housing recession, which is being touted as one of the worst in U.S. history, has left many economists scratching their heads for a solution, the presidential candidates haven’t even scratched the surface on the biggest domestic problem facing this country. It surprises me that these candidates have spent the last four months fanning out intricate plans for troop withdrawal in Iraq and presenting massive overhaul plans for the country’s health care system. But what to do with the estimated 2 million homeowners projected to go into foreclosures this year? Next question please. Clinton, Obama and Edwards have not completely ignored the housing issue, but any serious debate on the topic has been placed on the campaign’s backburner.

The slumping economy, which is teetering toward recession, will be public enemy number one and the next elected president’s biggest demon. I say to the candidates: Show me, don’t tell me, how you plan to provide relief for the troubled housing market and economy. I went to the top three Democratic presidential candidates’ Web sites to get their insights on the housing market crisis (sorry, Dennis Kucinich, for being left out of the debate). Not to exclude the Republican candidates, who were busy campaigning in Michigan on Tuesday, I will infiltrate their sites and release my findings on their housing stances in Friday’s blog.

Prioritizing the housing issue                                                                 

Illinois Sen. Barack Obama

Illinois Sen. Obama, wants to boost the economy with a proposed $75 billion economic fiscal stimulus plan. But his campaign Web site spent only 338 words addressing subprime mortgage and foreclosure issues. Just to give you a barometer to measure from, Obama’s draft for revamping the health care system, took up four pages and about 2,438 words.

Obama opposes mandatory moratorium and rate freezes on mortgages. An Obama adviser toldThe Wall Street Journal that the candidate believes “such laws could force lenders to hold loan interest rates below market levels and could deter them from reentering the market and would delay the return of liquidity. He thinks the industry should make these changes voluntarily. His advisors have also expressed legal concerns, stating that: “There would certainly be some serious constitutional issues to consider from the government trying to directly change the terms of millions of mortgage contracts after the fact.”

Clinton shared 394 words of advice on the housing issue. She devoted an entire page (664 words) to her solutions for ending the war in Iraq. But the senator from New York said she would allocate a whopping $30 billion in her economic stimulus plan to an emergency housing crisis fund aimed at heading off foreclosures. And to give credit where credit is due, Clinton did also mention the foreclosure crisis in her New Hampshire victory speech.

I have to admit I was surprised, but Edwards, who’s calling on Congress to pass a $25 billion stimulus package to strengthen the economy and create new jobs (in addition to $75 billion more if there are more signs of an economic recession), had the strongest, if not most thorough plan to tackle the housing crisis. In three full pages (1,806 words) the former North Carolina senator manages to propose a plan to create a home rescue fund, negotiate agreements between lenders and borrowers to refinance, and offers up ways to prevent future mortgage abuses.

Health care reform, homeland security and the epic war in Iraq are all issues that I care about and resonate with most voters. But the housing crisis, along with the rest of the economy, has an immediate impact on the country’s social wellbeing and our own pocketbooks. We can no longer afford to keep the issue buried at the bottom of the political stock pile.

What issues do you feel are important in the 2008 presidential election? Should candidates spend more time debating domestic issues affecting the economy?