We took a lot at some of President Bush’s comments on the economy here on Doom yesterday, so I thought today would be a good day to be an equal opportunity grumbler and take a look at some of Senator Clinton’s comments. She spoke last week at Yale and discussed foreclosure moratoriums: [Sorry about the audio- it gets a little better.]

 

She didn’t stop with the  moratoriums however:

The New York senator planned to call Thursday for immediate steps to address the U.S. housing crisis.

Clinton said the rapid rise of home foreclosures stemming from subprime mortgages had rocked global markets like no other factor. Proposed tax rebates to stimulate the U.S. economy – including those championed by Obama – were necessary but not sufficient, Clinton said.

"It’s OK, I’m for tax rebates – put some money in people’s pockets, though it has to be structured in right way," Clinton said. "But all the talk of stimulus and all the planning going on with Congress and the White House is going to miss the boat if we don’t stem the tide of foreclosure."

Clinton, who came late to the notion of such tax rebates as economic stimulus, said she had been initially been reluctant to reopen the tax code.

"But the situation deteriorated quickly," she said, which meant any agreement would have to include tax rebates.

"I want to emphasize the urgency of the situation we find ourselves in," Clinton said, saying South Carolina has a particularly complex set of economic challenges including home foreclosures, payday lending problems and higher than average level of student debt.

"When I started warning about this housing crisis and what it would do to the economy, I was blown off. I couldn’t get any attention," Clinton said. "Republicans and others said, ‘You’re an alarmist, it’s not a big deal."’

Clinton’s plan to freeze home foreclosures for 90 days has been criticized by some economists who have said it would raise home interest rates across the board while unfairly favoring consumers who had gotten into risky mortgages. Clinton rejected that argument. "People will say, ‘Why should we bail out somebody who made a bad loan?"’ she said. "Because you don’t want a vacant house next to you. You don’t want a deteriorating neighborhood. You don’t want a tax base dropping so police service to your home gets cuts. We’re all in this."

I hate to break this to you Senator, but a lot of those homes going into foreclosure are VACANT ALREADY.  There are too many of the darn things.  You won’t "stabillize the patient"- he’s too far gone.

I also didn’t remember Clinton being an early voice of reason in the housing crisis, and started looking for just how long she’s been a "lone voice crying in the wilderness."  According to Clinton herself:

I’ve been out there since March talking about this mortgage crisis and urging much more aggressive action to stem the foreclosures that are beginning to cascade around the country.

And her solution:

 

I called for a moratorium of 90 days to try to stop foreclosures and help people work out being able to stay in their homes, and freezing interest rates for five years, looking for ways to try to get the housing market stabilized, because I think that we’ve — you know, we have had the monetary side. The Fed has reduced interest. They may do some more. We don’t know.

But at some point you’ve got to have government action to really tackle these problems. And the stimulus package is a start, but it’s not nearly enough. What we have to do is have an economic policy that once again creates jobs with rising incomes.

We need to look at clean green energy. We need to have a much greater balance in our federal government spending.

I’m sorry Senator, but "government action" was the catalyst for "these problems" in the first place.  You’ll have to forgive me if I’m a little skeptical of the "Keystone Cops" getting it right this time.