The 60-Plus Association came out today with another misleading and factually inaccurate ad targeting bipartisan housing finance reforms. This second ad is just as erroneous as the first, which the nonpartisan site FactCheck.org said stretched the truth to “absurd lengths” to attack the bipartisan Housing Finance Reform and Taxpayer Protection Act.  

The housing reform legislation proposed by Senators Warner and Bob Corker (R-TN) represents more than two years of effort from a bipartisan group of 10 Senators. Leading industry and academic experts, as well as housing advocacy groups, have been instrumental in the evolution of the proposal. The Warner/Corker framework was improved further by Banking Committee Chairman Tim Johnson (D-SD) and Ranking Member Mike Crapo (R-ID). In addition, the Banking Committee conducted more than 10 public hearings before announcing they had reached a bipartisan proposal based on the Warner/Corker legislation. 

The reform proposal would provide much tougher oversight of the mortgage industry, with higher capital requirements to protect taxpayers from being on the hook for future bailouts in the event of another economic downturn. Taxpayers were asked to provide $188 billion to bail out Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac after the 2008 housing crash. This reform proposal would create a system that would require the private sector to take significant losses before taxpayers would ever have to step in again.

Furthermore, a key piece of the Warner/Corker reform proposal makes sure that small lenders like community banks and credit unions have the same access as bigger banks to the secondary mortgage market. That ensures that Virginia consumers will continue to find affordable, long-term mortgages provided through local lenders.

It’s not just the factcheckers who say that 60-Plus is just factually wrong. Industry and advocacy groups like the National Bankers Association, Mortgage Bankers, Homebuilders and the Consumer Federation of America, have said that these ads use scare tactics to mislead people in an effort to derail real bipartisan reform.