Conn just noted this new Obama Treasury Department proposal to convert the federal government into the nation’s largest landlord. This follows on earlier Obama administration actions turning America into the world’s largest private equity firm, employee benefits manager, union organizer, and automaker.
The landlord idea comes straight out of a November 2010 paper from the Center for American Progress. (If you’re not familiar, they’re a left-wing think tank that takes undisclosed money from secret donors.) The paper, titled “The Power of the President,” suggests that the government crack down on investors who buy foreclosures at low prices and then renovate and flip them. Instead, the government should take advantage of a crisis and use its control over Fannie and Freddie to put foreclosures out on the rental market:
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So, still more “energy efficiency stimulus,” a housing subsidy and a larger government equity stake in what really should be privately held assets. That sounds a lot like everything that hasn’t worked so far, all rolled into one.
The paper was written in the context of Democrats’ huge 2010 election losses, and so it explores ways in which Obama can expand government while circumventing Congress. That’s why the key suggestion is that Obama direct the Treasury and the Department of Housing and Urban Development to implement its housing program without approval from Congress — “to examine the availability of resources at FHA, Fannie Mae, and Freddie Mac and from existing appropriated funds…that can be used to finance pilot program implementation and evaluation.”
