by John McCormick,updated
SAN ANTONIO – Sen. Barack Obama opened his Texas primary campaign this afternoon with a discussion about the nation’s mortgage crisis and predatory lending.
With voters going to the polls in Wisconsin, the Illinois Democrat met with four Texans to learn about housing woes here and seek to differentiate himself from Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York.
“For some time, we’ve been warned that the problems in the housing market could spill into other corners of the economy,” Obama said in his opening remarks, shortly after landing here following a morning flight from Chicago. “And yet rather than stop it from happening, George Bush’s Washington was an enabler.”
Obama said his housing plan is better than Clinton’s.
“Sen. Clinton and I agree that this is a major problem, although we don’t totally agree on how to solve the problem,” Obama said. “She’s proposed that we freeze the monthly rate on existing adjustable rate mortgages for at least five years. I disagree with that approach, although I’m sure it is well intentioned…It will reward people who made this problem worse. It will also reward people who are wealthy and don’t need it…A blanket freeze, as she has proposed, will drive rates through the roof on people who are trying to get new mortgages to buy or refinance a home.”
Obama will hold a town hall meeting event here later this afternoon, before flying to Houston for an evening rally there. He is expected to spend much of the rest of the week in Texas, in advance of the March 4 primary here.
After coughing a bit, he explained he was still adjusting to the warm weather in Texas. “I’ve been in colder weather for the last several weeks,” Obama said, a day after a campaign swing through Ohio and Wisconsin.
Clinton’s campaign provided the following statement in response:
“When it comes to the housing crisis, Senator Obama sounds a lot more like President Bush than a Democratic candidate for President. In fact, Senator Obama has positioned himself to the right of George Bush on this issue. Senator Clinton knows it’s going to take a lot more than speeches to fix the housing crisis. She knows we need a candidate who has a plan that acknowledges that the housing market is broken, and who has the strength and experience to propose a moratorium and rate freeze to help Americans get back on their feet. Additionally, Senator Obama’s proposed $10 billion foreclosure fund is a mere one-third the size of Senator Clinton’s, yet another failure on his part to acknowledge the size and scope of this crisis. When Senator Obama says that Senator Clinton’s plan will “reward people who are wealthy and don’t need it” he shows himself to be out of touch with average Americans. Senator Clinton’s plan only helps sub-prime borrowers, a population that is disproportionately low-income.”