News-Record.com

President Bush is outlining steps to help out Americans caught up in the mortgage lending mess:

"It's not the government's job to bail out speculators or those who made the decision to buy a home they knew they could never afford," Mr. Bush said. "Yet there are many American homeowners who can get through this difficult time with a little flexibility from their lenders or little help from their government."

(Sorry, European investors, you're still up a creek.

Bush's announcement prompted this statement from Congressman Brad Miller, a Democrat who represents Greensboro and Raleigh:

"I welcome President Bush to the effort to help middle class American families avoid losing their homes to foreclosure. His attention to the issue is long overdue. If Congress had passed decent consumer protections against predatory mortgage lending four years ago, we wouldn't be in the mess we're in now. Instead, I had to fight for four years to keep Republicans in Congress from gutting state predatory mortgage lending laws.

I want to help homeowners keep their homes, but I have no interest at all in using taxpayer money to pay predatory mortgages in full. Congress has passed emergency legislation before - going back to the Great Depression - to help farmers avoid losing their farms to foreclosure by modifying their mortgages, and we need to do the same thing to help homeowners in predatory mortgages now.

I welcome President Bush's support for Congress' urgent effort to help middle class families save their homes."

Miller has some standing to speak out on the housing issue. He was a key architect of North Carolina's predatory lending laws, which are pretty aggressive in favor of consumers. As well, drafting legislation to protect borrowers at the federal level has been one of his key priorities in D.C.

Related: Columnist Scott Mooneyham has also weighed in on the topic.