And so it begins...

[Parkbandit]

LAS VEGAS (AP) - President Barack Obama is unveiling $1.5 billion in housing help, a boost timed to his appearance in the city with the worst foreclosure crisis in the nation.

Obama's move, detailed by aides in advance of his town hall here Friday, is the latest by a White House determined to show it is helping families rebound from a deep recession. The downturn is taking an election-year toll on Obama's party as voter frustration builds.

Obama was to announce that housing finance agencies in the five hardest-hit states in the housing crisis will receive $1.5 billion to help spur local solutions to the problem. Those five are Arizona, California, Florida, Michigan and Nevada.

The policy wrinkle comes during a two-day Western trip with different agendas for the president. He will be back in town-hall mode, a venue that aides say allows him to connect with people and distance himself from the messy process of Washington governing.

The president is also out to help vulnerable senators protect their seats and, in turn, gain as much legislative leverage as he can.

At the town hall and a business speech he will be lending his support to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada, a top 2010 election target of Republicans.

Obama's political involvement comes as the Democrats' command of the Senate grows shakier, jeopardizing the president's agenda. The tide of change that Obama rode to office is threatening to slam against his own party.

The first day of the trip was all politics. Obama campaigned Thursday for Sen. Michael Bennet of Colorado in Denver, then held a $1 million fundraiser for Democrats in Las Vegas.

Reid is one of Obama's allies, despite a flap over the president's tendency to refer to Las Vegas as a symbol of imprudent spending, which has the city's mayor fuming at the president.

For Obama, slowing the foreclosure rate is a key step in the recovery of the overall economy. Millions of people have lost their homes because they couldn't afford the mortgages anymore, and millions lost jobs because of the associated slowdown in new home building.

Reid's state leads the nation in home foreclosures; Las Vegas was the metro area with the highest foreclosure rate in January, with one in every 82 homes receiving such a filing.

The money for the new rescue effort will come from the $700 billion financial industry bailout program, according to a senior administration official who spoke anonymously Thursday night because the formal announcement had not been made.

Economic issues, such as unemployment or reduced income, are expected to be the main catalysts for foreclosures this year. Initially, subprime mortgages were mostly the culprit, but homeowners with good credit who took out conventional, fixed-rate loans are the fastest growing group of foreclosures.

Obama will cap his Las Vegas trip with a speech to the city's Chamber of Commerce before returning to Washington later Friday.

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20100219/D9DV7SS00.html

And this is just the beginning. It wasn't a coincidence that most of the "stimulus" wasn't spent when the economy needed stimulus.. most was postponed to shore up support for the 2010 election cycle. Add that to this spending of money that was paid back from the bank bailout and you have quite the large election war chest for the Democrat Party. Nice page out of the ol' FDR playbook.

[Gan]

They [Democrats] tried to buy the healthcare bill through to passage, what makes you think buying an election is any different?

[Geshron]

Supreme Court also made it rather easy for both sides to buy elections now given the recent ruling. Even 67% of polled Republicans are against the ruling (corporate contributions). This doesn't surprise me one bit. Makes me believe Bayh was right in terms of a plausible victory for third party candidates for all elections because of this tom-fuckery.

[ClydeR]

Add that to this spending of money that was paid back from the bank bailout and you have quite the large election war chest for the Democrat Party.

Do you have a source stating that this money came from bailout repayments? The article says the money came from the bailout. There is no mention of it being from repayed funds. It seems more likely that the funds came from the January 15, 2009, Congressional authorization to release the second $350 billion of the initially appropriated $700 billion TARP funds.

It is an important issue because there has been concern among Republicans that Obama would use repaid TARP money to boost the economy, which would increase employment. Using the TARP money to improve employment would be bad because it would hurt Republicans' chances to retake Congress in November.