Brad Miller: “I dearly wish that this bill was the one being described by so many people on the other side of the aisle. That sounds…”

“I dearly wish that this bill was the one being described by so many people on the other side of the aisle. That sounds like a really tough bill. And this bill, I hope, will become tougher as we go along. I agree with many over there who said that they support the idea of homeownership and want to make sure that there is a mortgage market that lets people buy homes. Mr. Chairman, the mortgages we are talking about have nothing to do with homeownership. According to the mortgage bankers themselves, who oppose this bill, 72 percent of subprime loans are refinances, not purchase money mortgages. And only about one in 10 subprime loans is to buy a first home. Lehman Brothers says that 30 percent of the subprime loans entered last year will result in final foreclosure, a family being turned out on the streets by a sheriff because their home was sold at a foreclosure auction at the steps of the courthouse. Do the math. One subprime loan in 10 helps people buy a home, a first home, get into homeownership. Thirty percent will result in foreclosure. The loans that we need to get at, we need to prohibit, are costing Americans homeownership, not helping with homeownership.”