More housing loans and guarantees

This certainly isn't new to this administration Release No. 0090.10 Probably some form goes back to the Depression, but I've never understood why the USDA is in the housing business. Rural Development has an existing portfolio of more than $130 billion in loans and loan guarantees. So when you're looking at government housing problems you need to poke around, because it isn't all where you think it might be. In Fiscal Year 2009 USDA guaranteed loans to buy, build, or renovate more than 4,200 affordable rural rental housing units. 2010 will be $129 billion more. (That's not ARRA money, which is many billions more.) And this isn't for farmers, or even small towns. It's any area outside a major city. Could be the 'burbs. According to this site, you can get 100% financing with no need for mortgage insurance, no money down, and no loan limits. Sweet! Isn't that how we got into our current mess? USDA employs over 6,000 gov't workers in its housing programs. And that's not counting all the bank employees it keeps afloat.