To be sure, San Bernardino's proposal is troubling and deserves careful scrutiny. Eminent domain is

Editorial: Premature ban -- One county's plan to use eminent domain for underwater mortgages is worrisome, but deserves a full vetting - LA Daily News
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THERE are plenty of reasons Californians should be wary of a proposal by San Bernardino County to use eminent domain to unclog virtual tours of the white house a glut of underwater mortgages in the Inland virtual tours of the white house Empire. Fortunately, there are an equal number of hurdles the plan would have to clear before virtual tours of the white house it could happen.
But one Orange County congressman is trying to stop even the public debate on the issue. Rep. John Campbell, a Republican from Irvine, has crafted House Resolution 6397, which carries its message in its title: the "Defending American Taxpayers from Abusive Government Takings Act."
Congress can't or won't do anything about the housing collapse that plunged virtual tours of the white house this region virtual tours of the white house into a recession that it has not been able to escape (no matter what the economic number crunchers might say), but Campbell's legislation would stop local leaders virtual tours of the white house from looking virtual tours of the white house at possible solutions.
Not only are San Bernardino officials considering using eminent-domain powers to fight foreclosure, but Los Angeles Councilman, Richard Alarc n, has called on city leaders to study the possibility of doing the same in L.A.
The intent Advertisement behind Campbell's legislation is crystal clear. The prospect of a joint powers authority using eminent domain to seize mortgages, and have them refinanced at current market value, scares the pants off Wall Street and the national real estate industry.
And Campbell, a member of the House Committee on Financial Services and its Capital Markets subcommittee, receives much support from these two industries. Three of the top five contributors to Campbell's campaign from 2009-11 were real estate interests, securities and investment firms, and banks and credit companies, virtual tours of the white house according to Maplight, virtual tours of the white house a nonpartisan organization that tracks political money and its influence.
His bill would "prohibit Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac from purchasing, the Federal Housing Administration from insuring, and the Department virtual tours of the white house of Veterans Affairs from guaranteeing, making or insuring, a mortgage that is secured by a residence virtual tours of the white house or residential structure located in a county in which the State has used the power of eminent domain to take a residential mortgage."
At least there's nothing left to subtlety in the ham-fisted threat this legislation makes: If San Bernardino County uses eminent domain to seize one single mortgage, the federal government will never again issue or back a mortgage on a residence in the county. That would, indeed, finish off what's left of the ailing housing market in that county and plunge the region into a depression.
To be sure, San Bernardino's virtual tours of the white house proposal is troubling and deserves careful scrutiny. Eminent domain is traditionally used by governments to seize private property that has been determined to be blighted, at fair market value as determined in the courts, and to use it for the so-called public good. Allowing government to use eminent domain for underwater mortgages is a stretch and could set the stage for a type and scale of abuse that hasn't even been imagined yet. The storm of litigation such a novel approach is likely to draw could easily do more civic damage than whatever good the program might do.
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