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Responsible Homeownership and
Rental Opportunities
Homeownership expands personal liberty,
builds communities, and helps Americans create
wealth. “The American Dream” is not a stale slogan.
It is the lived reality that expresses the aspirations of
all our people. It means a decent place to live, a safe
place to raise kids, a welcoming place to retire. It
bespeaks the quiet pride of those who work hard to
shelter their family and, in the process, create caring
neighborhoods.
The Great Recession devastated the housing
market. U.S. taxpayers paid billions to rescue Freddie
Mac and Fannie Mae, the latter managed and
controlled by senior officials from the Carter and
Clinton Administrations, and to cover the losses of
the poorly-managed Federal Housing Administration.
Millions lost their homes, millions more lost
value in their homes.
More than six million households had to move
from homeownership to renting. Rental costs escalated
so that today nearly 12 million families spend
more than 50 percent of their incomes just on rent.
The national homeownership rate has sharply fallen
and the rate for minority households and young
adults has plummeted. So many remain unemployed
or underemployed, and for the lucky ones
with jobs, rising rents make it harder to save for a
mortgage.
There is a growing sense that our national standard
of living will never be as high as it was in the
past. We understand that pessimism but do not
share it, for we believe that sound public policies
can restore growth to our economy, vigor to the
housing market, and hope to those who are now on
the margins of prosperity.
Our goal is to advance responsible homeownership
while guarding against the abuses that
led to the housing collapse. We must scale back
the federal role in the housing market, promote responsibility
on the part of borrowers and lenders,
and avoid future taxpayer bailouts. Reforms should
provide clear and prudent underwriting standards
and guidelines on predatory lending and acceptable
lending practices. Compliance with regulatory standards
should constitute a legal safe harbor to guard
against opportunistic litigation by trial lawyers.
We call for a comprehensive review of federal
regulations, especially those dealing with the environment,
that make it harder and more costly for
Americans to rent, buy, or sell homes.
For nine years, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac
have been in conservatorship and the current
Administration and Democrats have prevented
any effort to reform them. Their corrupt business
model lets shareholders and executives reap huge
profits while the taxpayers cover all loses. The
utility of both agencies should be reconsidered as a
Republican administration clears away the jumble of
subsidies and controls that complicate and distort
home-buying.
The Federal Housing Administration, which
provides taxpayer-backed guarantees in the
mortgage market, should no longer support highincome
individuals, and the public should not be
financially exposed by risks taken by FHA officials.
We will end the government mandates that
required Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and federallyinsured
banks to satisfy lending quotas to specific
groups. Discrimination should have no place in the
mortgage industry.
Zoning decisions have always been, and must
remain, under local control. The current Administration
is trying to seize control of the zoning process
through its Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing
regulation. It threatens to undermine zoning laws in
order to socially engineer every community in the
country. While the federal government has a legitimate
role in enforcing non-discrimination laws, this
regulation has nothing to do with proven or alleged
discrimination and everything to do with hostility to
the self-government of citizens.
America on the Move
Our country’s investments in transportation
and other public construction have traditionally
been non-partisan. Everyone agrees on the need
for clean water and safe roads, rail, bridges, ports,
and airports. President Eisenhower established a
tradition of Republican leadership in this regard by
championing the creation of the interstate highway
system. In recent years, bipartisan cooperation led
to major legislation improving the nation’s ports and
waterways.
Our Republican majority ended the practice
of earmarks, which often diverted transportation
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