I’ll take some flak for posting this, but yeah, even Michelle Malkin says some right things some of the time. In this New York Post piece, Michelle is spot-on when she says:

Subprime victims are the new heroes. Welcome to the politics of foreclosure.

… I certainly have sympathy for borrowers who may have been misled. But for every “predatory lender” out there, you can find a predatory borrower.

For every fraud-minded loan officer or mortgage broker, you can find a homeowner who secured financing and bought a home he knew he couldn’t afford with little money down and bogus or no income verification.

Washington is silent about this reckless behavior, which it is encouraging both tacitly and explicitly.

…The stigma of default is gone. Political rhetoric absolving borrowers of their responsibilities – and encouraging them to spend, spend, spend even more – has made it possible.

…Sorry, responsible Americans. There’s no seat at the next State of the Union Address, or the next Hillary Rescue roundtable, for you.

People often write me and challenge me on this issue because they don’t like the viewpoints I have expressed regarding the high time preferences, lack of financial intelligence, and general greed that has driven this problem which was encouraged by the government and its monstrous monetary policy. Indeed, financial institutions, thanks to the Federal Reserve, were encouraged to drop lending standards and hand out mortgages like they were penny candies. However, no matter what the transaction, on the other end there has to be a willing buyer who voluntarily takes part in the transaction and accepts the terms offered to him from the lender. The problem has always been this: I live for today and the heck with tomorrow. I’ll take one day at a time, but for now, I have my dream house and that’s all that matters. Today I have what I want. This is the high time preference problem enabled by the credit bubble. And individuals have the choice to be sucked into the seductive terms of the transaction (huge house that will impress all, low payment, fancy address), or they can critically assess the hypothetical consequences and walk away from it.

As Michelle notes, there are responsible people who experienced troubles that were out of their control (death, divorce, job issues, etc.), but those people are not the drivers of this massive foreclosure problem that the government so badly wants to control and subsidize. The fact that this has become the issue of choice for voters just tells you how badly people want to continue to rely on lying, campaigning politicians and socialist government programs to run their daily lives.