The Ruins of Trenton

President George W. Bush is in Freehold today, visiting a credit-counseling agency that is dealing with the recent mortgage loan collapse and all of those New Jersey residents who may be about to lose their homes through foreclosure.

The Bush administration has taken it upon itself to provide hundreds of billions of dollars in bail-out money for some of the nation’s largest banks, who are floundering as all the people who were given high-risk loans face the reality of not being able to keep up with payments.

Assistant Assembly Majority Leader Reed Gusciora has also taken it upon himself to question why President Bush and his officials have decided to provide hundreds of billions of dollars in financial relief for massive financial institutions, while providing little relief for the working-class families now frequently defaulting on these flawed loans.

“These Wall Street brokerages backed high risk loans to people who they know were unable to adhere to the payment plans, but they did it anyway,” said Mr. Gusciora, D-Mercer, in a statement. “When the loan defaults, the government is now providing a soft landing to the banks, but letting families go homeless.”

The federal government has done little in providing substantial financial relief to families, according to Mr. Gusciora, who said the government has only created counseling programs that only really provide advice to vulnerable homeowners.

According to Mr. Gusciora’s office, New Jersey ranks 13th in the nation in the amount of total foreclosures occurring per state, and in the City of Trenton in 2006 alone 314 high-risk sub-prime mortgages were handed out.