By Robert Amoroso

No need for “divine intervention”, we have President Obama,…aka THE ONE,

coming to the rescue once again and giving out tax payer goodies to both unscrupulous lenders and stupid homeowners who should never have purchased homes they couldn’t afford.

I’m not suggesting that we shouldn’t help those homeowners in distress, those that have purchased their homes, in good faith and based on their ability to pay, and perhaps (through no fault of their own), lost a job or income, or fell victim to a family crises, those are the folks that should be helped and not the Marlo Saab’s of the world, who purchased homes with no money down, and a moderate (by New York standards), income.

For those unfamiliar with Mr. Saab, he’s a Queens’s resident who purchased a $600,000 home on an $80,000 a year salary, with no money down. His story appeared a few days ago, along with his photo, on page-7, of the New York Daily News, under the headline “I need yer help. Mr. President”.

The article went on to explain how he purchased a two family home in an upscale part of Queens, New York called “Jamaica Hills Estates”, and spent over $10,000 in renovating the home. He went on to explain that his credit card debt is over $70,000 and spends an additional $10,000 a year sending his two children to private schools…all this on an $80,000 income.

The article went on to explain that he’s been borrowing money from family and friends to make his mortgage payments, and has even appealed to his congressman Rep. Anthony Weiner, to intervene.

Astoundingly, Mr. Michael Moskowitz a Manhattan based lender of Equity Inc. who was quoted in the article said that Mr. Saab would be a “good candidate” for financial aid under President Obama…aka THE ONE, mortgage bailout.

Mr. Moskowitz went on to explain; “Obama is trying to take a deserving person whose mortgage is worth more then the property is and refinance them”.

And that’s were the trouble lies, in the term “deserving”, perhaps the definition should be changed to accommodate this brave new world of government intervention and social engineering .  Here’s a guy who purchased a home with no money down and is paying $3,400 a month, he has a  $70,000 credit card debt, and a $10,000 a year tuition fee…on an $80,000 a year salary, and he’s “deserving” of a bail-out.

Am I missing something?  

Obviously, selling this house, and buying something more affordable never crossed Mr. Saab’s mind, he would rather put himself in the national spotlight, borrow money from friends and family, and plead for a handout, rather then live within his means, and perhaps that’s the underlined story of this article…living within one’s means.

Why anyone would subject themselves and their family to this type of embarrassment and scrutiny, unless it was absolutely necessary, is beyond me. But then again I come from a different generation and a different time. I learned early on from my immigrant parents to be accountable for my own actions and to try and live (to a certain extent), within my means.   

My sense is that Mr. Saab feels that he’s entitled to live in a $600,000 home, irregardless of his salary, speaks volumes of where we are today as a society. Sadly Mr. Saab isn’t alone in his narcissism, simply take a look around and you’ll see that we’ve become a self-absorbed society…living beyond our means.

Mr. Saab is simply an extreme case of this “me too” generation, gone amuck, who now wants government…aka the tax payer, to fund his life style, and to that end he’s willing to subject himself and his family to humiliation.

And, he now seems to have an ally in the White House that has no problem in confiscating tax payer funds and redistributing it to selfish, foolish and stupid homeowners, who engaged in reckless behavior. Perhaps we should all ignore responsibility and accountability and reward ineptness, misdeeds and even stupidity, by all concerned.

Should we be surprised then…at the ambivalence to accountability?

How else does one explain, why this president has not asked for congressional  investigations in to “how” and “why” this crisis began and what needs to be done, to avoid such a calamity again. Indeed he’s done just the opposite in giving once again, both Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac swiping powers, to oversee this rescue plan. The very same institutions that were the catalyst for the mortgage meltdown are at the helm again, with the same bureaucrats running the same show.  

Isn’t it any wonder then, why the likes of Mr. Saab, feels entitled to a government hand-out at our expense? 

President Obama is a crafty street-wise Chicago politician, who learned early on, how to work backroom deals and position himself in a benevolent light.  “Crafty”, in that while he speaks of transparency and openness, his deeds as usual indicate just the opposite. His supporters will tell you that his promise to place his stimulus package for all to see on the internet is both historic and unprecedented. And while that may be true , the devil however, is still in the details, and those details are well hidden within a maze of categories that masks the true accounting as to where the dollars are actually going and which lawmakers are responsible for the actual proposal of those earmarked dollars.

He also cleverly positions himself as a bystander, who inherited this crisis, and his public “dooms day” forecasts are part of an overall strategy to deflect any criticism that may eventually come his way, if his massive spending bill doesn’t succeed in actually stimulating the economy, a far cry from how President Reagan handled his own economic crisis with accountability, optimism and grace.

Reagan as president never decried the Carter Administration for their economic failures, he simply went about doing what needed to be done…he was truly a class act!  

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