“I’m going to take a lot of departments in Washington, and agencies, and combine them. Some eliminate, but I’m probably not going to lay out just exactly which ones are going to go,” Romney said. “Things like Housing and Urban Development, which my dad was head of, that might not be around later. But I’m not going to actually go through these one by one. What I can tell you is, we’ve got far too many bureaucrats. I will send a lot of what happens in Washington back to the states.” – Wall Street Journal
Oh, how perfect. April is Fair Housing Month.
Obviously, team Romney couldn’t care less.
They don’t care that every year HUD gets 10,000 complaints about housing discrimination.
Soldiers without a roof over their heads, it’s not our problem it’s theirs.
Team Romney doesn’t take enforcing anti-discrimination in high poverty neighborhoods seriously.
As for housing discrimination against LGBT individuals and families, it’s a reality Mitt Romney evidently ignores.
For a man who once considered an elevator for his cars, affordable housing doesn’t mean much. Unlike his dad, who worked his way up, Mitt Romney simply can’t relate to the concept of The Fair Housing Act, passed in 1968.
Unlike Bill Clinton, as well as Republican administrations going back to 1965, increasing home ownership of minorities is not his priority.
Unlike Barack Obama, community development doesn’t seem to grab the Mittster either.
Presidents of both political parties have supported HUD and the work the agency does going back decades into the 20th century. Supporting HUD has been a bipartisan event, because it’s about helping people who need it.
The campaign was quick to say these weren’t specific details, because he’s running for President for Pete’s sake!
“Gov. Romney is discussing some of the ideas he has to tackle the big issues facing America. Gov. Romney has also laid out a bold set of policy proposals that will grow our economy, cut spending and get our massive debt under control,” spokesperson Amanda Henneberg said, emphasizing that the proposals were just discussions. – Los Angeles Times
What would closing HUD mean? Maybe a better way to understand this is to focus on the over 24 million people who became homeowners because of HUD and the Federal Housing Administration.
Here are a few links on what HUD does for people, with much of the focus on those who are the most vulnerable in our society. You know, part of the 99% that are rarely counted and many of whom don’t vote, with those above poverty certainly not the wheel house of team Romney.
Avoiding Foreclosure
Buying a Home
Economic Development
Energy
Environment
Fair Lending
Grants
Home Improvements
Homelessness
Homes for Sale
Housing Discrimination
Housing Research and Data Sets
HUD Homes
Information for Disabled Persons
Information for Senior Citizens
Limited Denials of Participation
Veteran Information
All I have to say is that you were right when you said Obama vs. Romney is the perfect bookend to what we’re facing right now. This could have come out of Obama’s mouth as well sorry to say.
Betcha by golly, wow……if you’re expecting this election to turn on what policies are going to appeal to the statist left…….I’m thinking there will be many tears yet to flow.
Moving rental assistance programs to the states while promising to curtail the size of the Federal government…….let me count the ways that will gain more votes than lose votes.
I don’t think it’s about rental assistance. A lot of first time home buyers use HUD to buy their house. This kind of thing is going to hurt the housing market even more because the states don’t have any money.
The first time home buyer and lower income buyer is assisted through the FHA, which functioned for 30 years before “HUD” came into being.
There is no reason Romney can’t eliminate HUD and still leave FHA alone.
The campaign issue becomes is do we need a Federal cabinet level department to do the list of 17 things Ms. Marsh has typed out above?
And yes, we know that you guys will say “yes, of course”. The election, however, does not hang in the balance of what you guys happen to say though.
Actually this election is going to hang on the balance of people exactly like me and your sanctimonious crap is great advocacy for voting for Obama. It’s going to be so close that people like me ARE going to decide the election and I’m sure the Obama campaign thanks you for your help.
Conservatives have to be the most stupid people on the face of this earth.
And dingbat HUD operates the FHA. If you get rid of HUD you are getting rid of the FHA.
A while back Romney, in an interview, said he thought low income single mothers needed the dignity of work. I guess you could ask why his wife doesn’t need the dignity of work. During the Clinton years, after he ” fixed ” welfare, a documentary followed some of those lucky poor single mom’s as they traveled from their homes in Detroit to their minimum wage jobs in a mall 40 miles away. They boarded a chartered bus at six in the morning and returned home about seven at night. One of the places they worked was a restaurant chain owned by Dick Clark who was getting government subsidies to hire the women. The child care they were receiving was only good for a limited time and after that they were expected to be able to afford it themselves. It was practically slave labor with zero chance of advancement. They were actually doing better on welfare.
Romney has the nomination, so its makes no since to talk about getting rid of a organization that keeps roofs over the heads of many low-income people. Your right Taylor, discrimination against LGBT Americans in HUD should be addressed not only by Romney but Obama as well, even though I think it won’t be sadly. Romney better start gearing to the middle or he is going to lose big time. Its hard to believe that the Republicans can screw up something that could have basicly been given to them, though Romney can still win this election. I still won’t be voting for neither of the candidates, but this does have me second guessing. Now I can understand cleaning up corruption in the organizations, yes that would be a good idea or to combine some organizations to save money, those are the things that should be talked about. There should also be more rent to own housing also.