Providing for Consideration of H.R. 1106, Helping Families Save Their Homes Act of 2009

Floor Speech

PROVIDING FOR FURTHER CONSIDERATION OF H.R. 1106, HELPING FAMILIES SAVE THEIR HOMES ACT OF 2009 -- (House of Representatives - March 05, 2009)

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Mr. PENCE. Mr. Speaker, I rise in opposition to the rule and to the Helping Families Save Their Homes Act.

It's legislation that really will punish those who played by the rules, lived within their means, by forcing them to subsidize Americans who made irresponsible choices. This bill also throws good money after bad.

If the HOPE for Homeowners Program was intended to help 400,000 borrowers, the American people deserve to know that to date the program has assisted 43 borrowers, not 43,000, not 430, 43. The President said it was his goal to, quote, eliminate government programs that are not performing. We could start with the HOPE for Homeowners Program.

More than anything else, Mr. Speaker, we are witnessing a disturbing pattern here in Washington, one that rewards bad decisions at the expense of people that have made right choices. We saw it in the bailout of Wall Street under a prior administration and continued under the new one.

We saw this with the so-called stimulus bill that was designed to stem the rising tide in this economic crisis but was nothing more than a wish list of spending priorities put on the backs of our children and grandchildren. But today we should note more than 90 percent of Americans are paying their mortgages on time and meeting their financial obligations, even in these difficult days, let me say with authority as we consider this bill.

People back in Indiana don't want a handout. They don't want to turn a blind eye to people who, through no fault of their own, found themselves in loans in which they should not have been engaged, but Hoosiers don't want to be put on the hook for a handout for people who knowingly made bad choices.

These are tough times. We should all be willing to make the sacrifices necessary to weather this economic storm, but we to begin by reaffirming the principle of personal responsibility.

The bill before us fails this essential standard. Rewarding bad behavior will not solve our problems, it will only worsen them. We should reject this bill. We should pursue the kinds of policies that put personal responsibility first and ultimately create the incentive for Americans who have invested in their homes and in their lives to continue to expand and prosper.

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