[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 46 (Tuesday, March 17, 2009)]
[House]
[Page H3442]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   HONK IF YOU'RE PAYING MY MORTGAGE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
California (Mr. McClintock) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. McCLINTOCK. Madam Speaker, I have been asked to present more than 
6,000 postcards that were generated by the Armstrong and Getty radio 
show to protest policies that can best be described by the new bumper 
sticker ``Honk if You're Paying My Mortgage'' or today's reprise ``Honk 
if You're Paying AIG's Bonuses.''
  These postcards represent the first stirring of the public against 
some of the excesses that we are seeing out of this administration on 
the mortgage issue.
  Rick Santelli of CNBC struck a nerve last month when he asked, ``How 
many of you want to pay your neighbor's mortgage who has an extra 
bathroom and can't pay their bills?'' Jack Armstrong and Joe Getty, who 
host the popular radio talk show in Northern California, asked the same 
question of their listeners. And here's their response:
  On each of these thousands of postcards is the story of a responsible 
family struggling to make ends meet in the worst recession in a 
generation, families who are meeting their obligations, who are staying 
current with their mortgages, even though many of them are upside down 
on their home values and owe more than their home is worth. And they're 
watching as this government says to borrowers who lied on their 
applications, who put no money down and accepted teaser rates, and who 
withdrew all of the equity of their home to pay for stuff, don't worry, 
we'll force your neighbor to pay your mortgage.
  They're watching as this government says to lenders like AIG who 
knowingly made loans to people they knew couldn't afford them, who made 
millions creating the housing bubble, don't worry, we'll cover your 
million dollar bonuses with taxpayer money.
  But the families who sent in these postcards keep making their 
payments, many eating into their savings, foregoing vacations, 
postponing retirements, turning down consumer purchases because they 
stand by their word. These are the families that turned down the 
opportunity to flip that house, to make that quick fortune, to cash in 
on their equity for a second home or a boat they couldn't afford. They 
are the 92 percent of borrowers who are making their mortgage payments, 
despite all of the incentives that this administration's offering them 
to stop. And these postcards are eloquent testimony to their resentment 
at being required to bail out the banks and the borrowers who created 
the housing bubble, who caused the credit collapse, and who now are 
being subsidized, bailed out, and lavished with multi-million dollar 
bonuses paid for with our tax money.
  Joe Getty asked the question yesterday, ``What has happened to the 
words 'sadder but wiser'? What has happened to that American tradition 
that you make your own decisions, good or bad, and then you live with 
those decisions?''
  The President tells us that if your neighbor's home is on fire, you 
don't quibble over who pays for the water. And that's true. But as Jack 
Armstrong pointed out, if my neighbor burns down his house by shooting 
off Roman candles in his living room, I'll be darned if I'm going to 
pay for him to rebuild it.
  Armstrong and Getty, Rick Santelli, and others are speaking for the 
vast silent majority of Americans who pay their bills, who honor their 
commitments, and who make this country run.
  The President recently said that we are all to blame. Well, no, we 
not all to blame. Those families who passed up the get-rich-quick real 
estate seminars and turned down the loans they couldn't afford or 
settled for a smaller home or who rented because that's what they could 
afford, they're not to blame, and they shouldn't be left holding the 
bag.
  Ninety-two percent of Americans are making their mortgage payments 
not only because it's the right thing to do, but because they know that 
the sooner the market corrects itself, the sooner our homes will begin 
to appreciate once again.
  By prolonging the real estate correction, by propping up bad loans, 
by undermining responsible homeowners, and by rewarding the smartest 
guys in the room who created this catastrophe with taxpayer-paid 
bonuses, this government is extending the agony and postponing the day 
when the market will bottom out and home buyers can safely re-enter the 
housing market.
  Madam Speaker, I take great hope from the public's response to 
Armstrong and Getty's invitation to protest the mortgage bailouts. It 
means that the American spirit is not dead, that there are still 
millions of Americans who believe in individual responsibility and 
integrity. And even if such people are in short supply in Washington 
today, they still comprise the vast majority of our Nation, and that 
great silent majority is fast tiring of remaining silent.

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