President visits debt-counseling agency in Freehold to tout mortgage hotline today

NEWARK, NJ – Today, President Bush will be at a debt-counseling in Freehold, New Jersey agency to tout the mortgage hotline established recently in the midst of the foreclosure crisis. U.S. Senator Robert Menendez (D-NJ), a member of the Senate Banking Committee who sounded alarm bells on the housing crisis more than a year ago and has been a key supporter of Congressional efforts to address it, released the following statement:

“For more than a year, this tsunami of foreclosures has washed away the American dream for millions. The president has bent over backward to stabilize Wall Street, but he has never exerted much effort on helping the homeowners on Main Street.

“Homeowners across the country are drowning in out-of-control mortgage payments. The president must finally realize that their dire situation not only threatens to take away the American Dream from millions, it also has a direct effect on property values, on the credit crisis and on our entire slumping economy.

“I would hope that the president is in New Jersey to finally announce a new broader-based, farther-reaching initiative to buoy homeowners who houses are slipping away. I would hope he is here to finally endorse some of the housing bills in Congress that his Republican colleagues have refused to support. What American homeowners can’t afford is just another photo-op or more baby steps.”