Not the lenders responsibility, except in NJ…

Again, NJ legislators lack awareness of their own unintended consequences. From the Star Ledger:

3-year foreclosure ban for Sandy victims headed to Christie’s desk

A bill aimed at keeping thousands of Hurricane Sandy victims from entering into foreclosure for three years passed both houses of the state Legislature on Thursday.

The bill (S2577) would prevent lenders from foreclosing on homeowners waiting for funds through rebuilding grant programs run by the state.

It would also allow homeowners waiting for grant money to qualify for a three-year forbearance period, during which time they would not have to make mortgage payments.

State Assemblyman Gary Schaer (D-Passaic), one of the bill’s sponsors, said state “has not adequately or appropriately addressed the needs” of Sandy victims.

But a representative from the New Jersey Bankers Association told lawmakers at a hearing on the bill earlier this year that lenders “are getting forced to carry the burden the government has failed to do themselves.”

This entry was posted in Foreclosures, Mortgages, Politics, Shore Real Estate. Bookmark the permalink.

81 Responses to Not the lenders responsibility, except in NJ…

  1. grim says:

    This idiocy will never be signed. The representative was being much to reserved and politically correct in his statement.

    If it were signed, banks would simply increase downpayment amounts and the risk premium associated on NJ shore mortgages, which will make them more expensive, and harder to get. To which the politicians will scream unfair housing discrimination, not understanding that this represents three additional years of disrepair and neglect to the lender’s collateral, and potentially three more years of non-payment.

  2. grim says:

    From the Record:

    N.J. added 7,900 jobs in November, monthly report shows

    New Jersey is heading into the end of 2015 with its strongest job performance in 15 years, as employers added 7,900 jobs in November, to bring the total number of jobs created in the state so far this year to about 55,000, state labor officials said Thursday.

    The state’s unemployment rate fell to 5.3 percent in November. The rate remained above the national level of 5 percent, but it reflected a much healthier job market than a year earlier, when the state’s jobless level was 6.3 percent.

    “The year 2015 is not even over yet and already we have the strongest annual employment growth of any year since the recovery began – by a wide margin,” James Wooster, chief economist for the New Jersey Department of Treasury, said in a statement. “We are approaching full employment.”

    With one month to go in 2015, the 55,000 jobs that the state’s economy has generated is the most since 78,400 in 2000.

    Jobs were added in education and health care, construction, professional and business services and trade, transportation and utilities. Labor officials also revised October’s job numbers upward by 700, resulting in an increase of 16,800 jobs that month.

    Even with those gains, the state has only recovered 78 percent of the approximately 250,000 jobs lost as a result of the 2007-2009 recession. Jon Whiten, a spokesman for the progressive group New Jersey Policy Perspective, said the state has “a tremendous amount of catching up to do, with a recovery that still lags far behind most states and the nation.”

  3. D-FENS says:

    We get what we deserve. Very few registered voters participated in the assembly elections this November. Now it’s an even bigger hoard of dunces.

  4. grim says:

    From the Star Ledger:

    North Jersey casino plans advance despite fears it will ‘kill’ Atlantic City

    A pair of dueling proposals to ask New Jersey voters to approve expanding casino gambling to the northern part of the state advanced in the state Legislature on Thursday — even though the measures continue to clash and south Jersey lawmakers fear either one would devastate already struggling Atlantic City.

    New Jersey’s constitution currently allows casino gambling only in Atlantic City. But both resolutions — one from the Democratic leaders of the state Assembly and the other from the Democrats who control the state Senate — would place a question on next November’s ballot asking voters to amend the constitution to allow casinos in two different counties, each 72 miles from Atlantic City.

    The goal of each plan is two-fold: to help New Jersey battle ever-growing casino competition in neighboring states and to give a portion of the tax revenue from the new gambling halls to boost Atlantic City, which has seen four casinos close and more than 8,000 jobs lost over the last two years.

  5. leftwing says:

    Unless the house is a rental I don’t see what the inability to occupy has to do with the ability of the homeowner to pay.

    On separate government competency news, CBS This Morning reports that the San Bernardino’s shooters’ friend who purchased the weapons, Marquez, had incriminating statements on his facebook account.

    Specifically, that he was “leading a multiple lives….wondering when it was all going to collapse” and that he was involved in “terrorist plots, drugs, antisocial behavior”

    So let me get this straight. Two of three people directly involved in the San Bernardino attacks posted publicly on the most used social media website their issues including key words such as ‘terrorism’. Yet the government somehow needs access to metadata and encryption technology to keep us safe? On the single most focused on issue by law enforcement agencies in decades?

    The level of incompetency is mind boggling. Posts. Terrorism. On Facebook.

    Really?

  6. leftwing says:

    Put a fork in AC.

    Maybe your grandkids will enjoy it in 50 years after it goes through the multi-generational cycle of hitting bottom, thorough decay, homesteading, renewal, and then gentrification.

    Or maybe it will become and stay Camden-on-the-Sea.

  7. grim says:

    We need to eliminate property tax exemption for non profits and religious use.

  8. grim says:

    So what happens when the casinos open just north of the border in the Catskills?

  9. D-FENS says:

    I disagree with eliminating the exemption for religious use.

  10. leftwing says:

    Preview of an upcoming 60 Minutes interview with Tim Cook, CEO of Apple on Sunday. Snippet was discussion on overseas taxes and dollar repatriation.

    Charlie Rose read some opinions of Cook’s Congressional testimony calling out Apple. Cook could not have been more emphatic calling it “total political cr@p” and that the US tax code was of the Industrial Age, not Digital Age. Said he already paid taxes on the overseas funds and to move them into the US would cost an additional 40% which was “idiocy”.

    Wonder how the Left will react to reality coming from one of their own.

  11. leftwing says:

    8.

    Funny being in AC and seeing some of the old photos plastered on the walls of its golden era.

    Gaming as a centerpiece of tourism is no longer a viable strategy. The AC-Vegas monopoly has been broken, too much competition now.

    Casinos won’t bring the Borscht Belt back.

  12. Libturd supporting the Canklephate says:

    Charlie Rose is great, for inducing sleep.

  13. leftwing says:

    12. LOL, everything you type now takes on an entirely different perspective after that video.

  14. A Home Buyer says:

    Not sure if this was posted, but I heard almost nothing about it until a few days ago.
    Funny, CNN says the event was over in 80 seconds because the Gunman kills himself, but you have to scroll down to the middle / bottom of the page to find out that it was “believed” to have ended due to an armed, on-site School Resource Officer cornering the gunman.


    Once he learned of the threat, he ran — accompanied by an unarmed school security officer and two administrators — from the cafeteria to the library, Robinson said. “It’s a fairly long hallway, but the deputy sheriff got there very quickly.”


    The deputy was yelling for people to get down and identified himself as a county deputy sheriff, Robinson said. “We know for a fact that the shooter knew that the deputy was in the immediate area and, while the deputy was containing the shooter, the shooter took his own life.”


    He praised the deputy’s response as “a critical element to the shooter’s decision” to kill himself, and lauded his response to hearing gunshots. “He went to the thunder,” he said. “He heard the noise of gunshot and, when many would run away from it, he ran toward it to make other people safe.”

    http://www.cnn.com/2013/12/14/us/colorado-school-shooting/

  15. yome says:

    10.
    As I understand there is no double taxation. Taxes paid from other countries will be deducted to meet tax rate in US. 40 % is definitely not what apple will be paying

  16. grim says:

    Anyone who rags on stu will be banned unless they share a similar incriminating video. Doing that took a gigantic set of balls, he gets props in my book.

  17. leftwing says:

    16. Not ragging. Stu’s great. Yet everytime I see his screen name now I laugh, but in a good way. No disrespect intended at all.

    You can form a mental portrait of someone based on how/what they post, especially what they post about themselves. He is 180 degrees from that picture for me, again totally in a good way, lol.

  18. yome says:

    Why suddenly Ryan getting things done in Congress?
    Pelosi: Speaker Ryan to Take On Legislation to Help Puerto Rico

    by SUZANNE GAMBOA

    This is the Republican Party I Supported

  19. Juice Box says:

    re: Meet me down in Atlantic City..

    There are at dozen empty lots down in Atlantic City that were supposed to be Casinos but were cancelled, there were four Casinos closed in the last few years and now stand empty. There is a park where the Sands once stood a decade ago. If the gaming industry feels it isn’t worth the investment anymore then why try to continue to save the place? The biggest issue is it is just too dam far for a day trip. If anything there should be high speed rail from NYC, but we cannot get that to even the burbs. The old slow NYC to Atlantic City train folded three years ago. So your option now is to drive or take the bus and in the summer it can be a four or five hour ride.

    Move the Casinos an hour and a half north to Long Branch or Asbury and you could actually have shot. Move it to the Meadowlands? Nah too sterile and it will end up more like Yonkers or the Aqueduct Racino.

  20. Juice Box says:

    grim # 19 in Mod..

  21. leftwing says:

    15 yome

    I’ll be tuning in on Sunday night. Pretty sure that 40% was a direct quote from Cook.

    Regardless, even with the tax credit for taxes paid in other jurisdictions there is an additional cost to bringing those foreign earnings back to the US.

    My issue is more with our “leaders” who seem to believe that to incentivize one to bring additional capital back to the US one should tax the transaction and, when that doesn’t work, hurl invectives.

    Again, with the backdrop that the US is one of very few, if any, developed country that even attempts to tax in this manner.

  22. yome says:

    In the U.S., drug companies set their own prices and raise them over time. One of the biggest U.S. buyers of medicine, Medicare, is prohibited from negotiating prices directly with drug companies. Private insurers and benefit managers strike their own rebate deals with drug companies, and details of these contracts are almost never disclosed.

    In Europe, drug prices are often set by government health systems and decline over time as countries demand additional price cuts, said Floriane Reinaud, a principal analyst at IHS.

    “In the U.S., list prices are just a little bit crazy, and even with discounts that are tied to that it is still higher than Europe,” Reinaud said.

    http://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2015-drug-prices/

  23. yome says:

    21 Congress seems to be Legislating ,both Parties meeting eye to eye. Maybe, they will get something done with the tax code

  24. Juice Box says:

    Re: 18 – you really have to ask? Gotta take away Hillary ‘s talking points, there is an election to be won.

  25. Libturd supporting the Canklephate says:

    Would love to hear some of the imagery you guys have formed on the other characters here.

  26. joyce says:

    Does “help” PR mean a bailout? This is what you support.

    yome says:
    December 18, 2015 at 9:25 am
    Why suddenly Ryan getting things done in Congress?
    Pelosi: Speaker Ryan to Take On Legislation to Help Puerto Rico

    by SUZANNE GAMBOA

    This is the Republican Party I Supported

  27. Libturd supporting the Canklephate says:

    Did you guys see that the CWA actually allowed their union members to vote on who to endorse and they chose Bernie. All of the other union endorsements have been chosen by their union’s leadership so they all chose to endorse Lady Cankles. The Democratic Machine is live and well.

  28. joyce says:

    Not being able to afford to make the payment as well as the payment on where ever you’re living as a result of the dislocation.

    leftwing says:
    December 18, 2015 at 7:49 am
    Unless the house is a rental I don’t see what the inability to occupy has to do with the ability of the homeowner to pay.

  29. Juice Box says:

    re # 28 – Bernie like trump is the 3rd party. He has to be destroyed, there can be only two choices.

  30. yome says:

    Dont know what is being put on the table. One thing is for sure, PR needs help.

    joyce says:
    December 18, 2015 at 10:07 am
    Does “help” PR mean a bailout? This is what you support.

  31. Libturd supporting the Canklephate says:

    PR always needs help.

  32. joyce says:

    So you blindly support action over inaction no matter the consequences. This is what you support (which is arguably worse).

  33. Grim [8];

    So what happens when the casinos open just north of the border in the Catskills?

    Exactly what happened to AC when casinos opened on every major artery at NJ’s western border: I-80 (Mt. Airy); I-78 (Sands); PA Tpke (Parx); Philly (Sugar House); Chester (Harrah’s); Del. Mem. Br. (De. Park).

    I’d actually never considered how systematic and thorough the placement is. The only “miss” there is that on I-84 you’d have to drive to Scranton (Mohegan Pocono Downs); but that one location is about equal distance from Binghamton, and Port Jervis isn’t exactly a bustling metropolis to justify its own location.

    I was recently in Seneca Casino at Buffalo Creek. This is the city casino, not the one in Niagara Falls. Really depressing. Niagara is noticeably better, being something of a tourist location. Still no Foxwoods/MGM or Vegas strip property.

  34. yome says:

    I support action being put forth. Better than no action. Both sides will present their ideas.

    joyce says:
    December 18, 2015 at 10:07 am
    Does “help” PR mean a bailout? This is what you support.

  35. Grim [8];

    So what happens when the c@sinos open just north of the border in the Catskills?

    Exactly what happened to AC when c@sinos opened on every major artery at NJ’s western border: I-80 (Mt. Airy); I-78 (Sands); PA Tpke (Parx); Philly (Sugar House); Chester (Harrah’s); Del. Mem. Br. (De. Park).

    I’d actually never considered how systematic and thorough the placement is. The only “miss” there is that on I-84 you’d have to drive to Scranton (Mohegan Pocono Downs); but that one location is about equal distance from Binghamton, and Port Jervis isn’t exactly a bustling metropolis to justify its own location.

    I was recently in Seneca Casino at Buffalo Creek. This is the city c@sino, not the one in Niagara Falls. Really depressing. Niagara is noticeably better, being something of a tourist location. Still no Foxwoods/MGM or Vegas strip property.

    ETA: Grim, no fair — you are exempt from the spam filter!

  36. Grim [8];

    So what happens when the c@sinos open just north of the border in the Catskills?

    Exactly what happened to AC when c@sinos opened on every major artery at NJ’s western border: I-80 (Mt. Airy); I-78 (Sands); PA Tpke (Parx); Philly (Sugar House); Chester (Harrah’s); Del. Mem. Br. (De. Park).

    I’d actually never considered how systematic and thorough the placement is. The only “miss” there is that on I-84 you’d have to drive to Scranton (Mohegan Pocono Downs); but that one location is about equal distance from Binghamton, and Port Jervis isn’t exactly a bustling metropolis to justify its own location.

    I was recently in Seneca C@sino at Buffalo Creek. This is the city c@sino, not the one in Niagara Falls. Really depressing. Niagara is noticeably better, being something of a tourist location. Still no Foxwoods/MGM or Vegas strip property.

    ETA: Grim, no fair — you are exempt from the spam filter!

  37. yome says:

    So you blindly support action over inaction no matter the consequences. This is what you support (which is arguably worse).

  38. Alex says:

    25-

    Alright Lib, here’s how I picture pumpkin,

    5’9″-5’10”, at least 50 pounds overweight, with straight black hair.

  39. Libturd supporting the Canklephate says:

    A cas1no in the Meadowlands will turn AC into Camden by the sea. With that said, Cas1no in Meadowlands will be disgustingly successful as will that mall be. Of course, route 3 will become a bigger parking lot than the LIE.

  40. leftwing says:

    30. joyce

    I guess what I’m saying is that even before Sandy anyone with a shore house was already carrying the mortgage cost. The fact that they can’t use it now doesn’t change the mortgage payment math.

    Only exception I can think of is if the house were a rental, ie. now you still have the mortgage but no income coming in to offset it.

  41. Libturd supporting the Canklephate says:
  42. leftwing says:

    Actually joyce, typed that and I see what you are saying. Full time shore residents, not summer homes? Agree there.

  43. Raymond Reddington formerly Phoenix says: says:

    22. Yome,
    The other part is that most of the users of Medicare have not paid in nearly as much as is going out and the cost of the medications they take is not controlled one bit.
    Old goats are no different than union workers in this respect-give me what I want, even if it bleeds you dry-take it out of young guy’s check and give it to me (2 tier wage system).
    Govt could do the right thing and bring big hammer down on drug company- nope, does not happen. They have the capability of doing much good, but can’t seem to accomplish the task.
    Union could get rid of crappy worker (best example police union Chicago stands by cop who murdered teen-obviously in the wrong, but hey…) They also have the capability of doing much good, but can’t seem to accomplish the task either.

    “One of the biggest U.S. buyers of medicine, Medicare, is prohibited from negotiating prices directly with drug companies”

  44. Raymond Reddington formerly Phoenix says: says:

    42. Shore houses.

    1. Homeowner /Flood insurance- if it is purchased and paid for, it needs to pay out.
    No 600k disclaimer page. End of story. House flattened, flooded by hurricane. Pay up.
    No pay up, put top executive in jail by end of week, with the next 2 underlings in the next 24 hrs until they cough up the dough.
    2. Rental home- it’s a business. That’s it. Document and insure it that way. Don’t do that, too bad if you lose your home. Insurance for rental needs to cover rental payment included in policy or homeowner must opt out.

    Problem is the games that are played by the lawyers– wind driven rain not covered, etc. Just like health insurance with all of the exclusions. Total waste of resources and time. You don’t want to cover something- go out of business already. Who has time to look thru 500 pages of legal garbage just to load a software program. It is all for one reason and one reason only – to deceive and deny. That’s it in a nutshell…..

  45. leftwing says:

    “Pushing out Bernie”

    Bernie’s not going anywhere. Wouldn’t surprise me if his entry and continued presence were engineered by the DNC.

    He needs to stay in the race to make the Annointed One appear more centrist. Hillary’s been banging the drum all over for more taxes, including the day after the Republican debate.

    No way she is able to do that and look reasonable without Bernie as a foil. Her worst leftist policy still puts her to the right of Bernie.

  46. Libturd supporting the Canklephate says:
  47. Fast Eddie says:

    Libturd [41],

    Lol! :)

  48. Alex says:

    46-

    That’s good.

  49. Libturd supporting the Canklephate says:

    Come on. Join in on the fun. It’s Friday.

  50. Fast Eddie says:

    The Great Pumpkin probably looks like Rick Moranis in Ghostbusters.

  51. leftwing says:

    Phil Dunphy, without the decent looking wife.

  52. grim says:

    44 – Seems like insurance is trying to get into the business of not actually insuring anything.

  53. Raymond Reddington formerly Phoenix says: says:

    53.
    More disclaimers than features these days. That’s the issue with private insurance.
    Just imagine if Medicare was private.

    Hey, Gramps, did you smoke?? Lucky Strikes, Camels?? Sorry, you are not covered by Medicare.
    Hey Grandma, how long ago did you get the “sugar?” Sorry, your diabetes is a pre-existing condition, you are not covered by Medicare.

    The list goes on and on. Same for Medicaid. No pre-existing conditions stopping a check from cashing there.

    Hmm, which would you choose at 65- Medicare or a RomneyVoucher??

  54. Raymond Reddington formerly Phoenix says: says:

    Medicare is the Cadillac health care plan….

  55. Libturd supporting the Canklephate says:

    “Medicare is the Cadillac health care plan….”

    It’s probably close. Every month my parents ask me what otc drugs I need. It appears they get such a huge allotment that all of my siblings will never have to pay for OTC drugs ever again. I’ve got more generic Tylen0l, multi-vitamins and pink bismuth than the local CVS.

  56. Libturd supporting the Canklephate says:

    Wow. $50 a month.

  57. Raymond Reddington formerly Phoenix says: says:

    56. Lib,
    You don’t get something for nothing-unless you take it from someone else.
    For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. Right now old goats are stealing from future generations. Somewhere along the line, as we are seeing with our taxes, is that chickens come home to roost. Fate puts each individual on a particular time line- you are not able to choose when you are born or what world you are born into.
    I have a good friend that whenever I lend him something, it comes back better than when I gave it to him. He will wash it, change the oil, replace a part, new blade, etc.
    Just an all around ethical guy. Not self-centered like 50% of Americans today.
    The older generation today cares more about themselves and would devour the last morsel of food, energy, or other resource as long as it benefits themselves…

    “that all of my siblings will never have to pay”

  58. joyce says:

    Yeah, thought the relief was supposed to only go to people with primary residences.

    leftwing says:
    December 18, 2015 at 10:41 am
    Actually joyce, typed that and I see what you are saying. Full time shore residents, not summer homes? Agree there.

  59. joyce says:

    That’s the problem with public insurance; any attempt to inject common sense is met with a “political” or “emotional” response. Should a chain smoker ever be in line for a lung transplant? Drinker and liver?

    Raymond Reddington formerly Phoenix says: says:
    December 18, 2015 at 12:08 pm
    53.
    More disclaimers than features these days. That’s the issue with private insurance.
    Just imagine if Medicare was private.

    Hey, Gramps, did you smoke?? Lucky Strikes, Camels?? Sorry, you are not covered by Medicare.
    Hey Grandma, how long ago did you get the “sugar?” Sorry, your diabetes is a pre-existing condition, you are not covered by Medicare.

  60. Libturd supporting the Canklephate says:

    “The older generation today cares more about themselves and would devour the last morsel of food, energy, or other resource as long as it benefits themselves…”

    I wonder if we’ll get that way?

    I went on a class trip this past week with Gator Jr’s class. There were 6 chaperons in all. All of these other parents were their kids best friends. They never left their kids side the entire time. It’s scary.

  61. Raymond Reddington formerly Phoenix says: says:

    61. Lib,
    Who else can they trust? The amount of cretins outweigh the amount of sane these days..

  62. Essex says:

    60. liver? Stephen Stills got two….

  63. Essex says:

    Oops I mean David Crosby….

  64. Libturd supporting the Canklephate says:

    I am truly scared of the current generation. They really should be known as generation PW.

    I manage the referees in our local town rec street hockey league. There are 16 boys who are assigned to cover 9 games per weekend (2 per shift). These kids range in age from 13 to 16. They are paid $15/hour on the books. They don’t follow directions well. They can’t think for themselves and they make mommy and daddy do everything for them. Out of the 16 kids, there are maybe 3 who have common sense and some sign of independence from their parents. I’ve had to tell 2 mothers and 1 father that THEIR kid is MY employee and that they need to let their kids come up with the questions and ask them to me directly. I have their kid’s cell phone numbers and email addresses. Not that they ever check their emails. At the initial referee meeting, the 7 kids who made it (one brought his dad) were on their phones the entire time I was speaking. Lots of fantasy football talk was going on. Needless to say, their social skills are highly suspect. One kid claimed he missed the meeting since he was in Jamaica. I asked him if he was in Jamaica for the three weeks prior to the meeting since I sent out a reminder each of those three weeks to which he was supposed to let me know if he couldn’t make it to the meeting.

    I guess I’ll just continue to focus on my boys.

  65. Libturd supporting the Canklephate says:
  66. NJT says:

    #53 – Yup (worked for two MAJOR insurance companies as a senior employee with
    almost unlimited access to data…).

    *FEMA is more generous! (at least to me and a friend). Oh, and they don’t charge
    premiums!

  67. joyce says:

    NJT
    Are we talking about Flood Insurance or a FEMA grant?

  68. NJT says:

    #62

    “The amount of cretins outweigh the amount of sane these days..”.

    Always been that way, always will be.

    To quote Bob Seger: “Still the same”.

  69. NJT says:

    Joyce,

    Insurance companies denied my claims (as I assumed they would). FEMA gave me checks (that I didn’t have to pay back – yes, grants).

    *The properties did not require flood insurance and were far from any waterway on
    high ground and had NEVER flooded before.

    *2 – Wish I could have held out for more but I was moving (a friend stayed and told
    them it wasn’t enough…he got double!).

  70. Ragnar says:

    Here’s how I picture anon after 12 straight hours of twittering in his mom’s basement:
    http://tinyurl.com/anoninbasementwitterduty

  71. Comrade Nom Deplume, the anon-tidote says:

    [14] yome

    Even with state level taxes added in, 40% got a raised eyebrow from me.

  72. leftwing says:

    Funny, CBS is now using that clip to promote 60 Minutes on Sunday. Clearly he says 40.

    I agree on the math, don’t know how he gets there. More interesting to me that likely the only CEO palatable to the Left (other than maybe Howard Schultz?) is p1ssing all over taxing repatriation. Hard.

  73. The Great Pumpkin says:

    Pretty close in height, but wrong on weight. 5’10 175-180 lbs. I’m in pretty good shape. I get carded wherever I go. Ac makes me stamp my hand. So I don’t look my age.

    Alex says:
    December 18, 2015 at 10:33 am
    25-

    Alright Lib, here’s how I picture pumpkin,

    5’9″-5’10″, at least 50 pounds overweight, with straight black hair.

  74. D-FENS says:

    With 9 Million Residents in NJ Only 496 Concealed Carry Permits Were Issued in 2014

    http://gunsnfreedom.com/with-9-million-residents-in-nj-only-496-concealed-carry-permits-were-issued-in-2014/6009

    What do you need that for anyway?

  75. D-FENS says:

    That’s an embarrassment. Revolutionary war battles were fought inn this soil for chrissakes.

    We need to get some fcuking balls.

  76. I can’t stop laughing!!!

    http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2015/12/18/obama-reportedly-blames-low-key-response-to-terror-on-not-watching-enough-cable-tv.html

    President Obama reportedly suggested that not watching enough cable TV was to blame for his initial low-key response to the terror attacks in Paris and San Bernardino.

    The president has faced bipartisan criticism for not striking an urgent enough tone in response to those attacks. The New York Times reported Friday on a private meeting with columnists where Obama said he realized he was slow to respond to public concerns about terror.

    Further, the Times reported: “In his meeting with the columnists, Mr. Obama indicated that he did not see enough cable television to fully appreciate the anxiety after the attacks in Paris and San Bernardino, and made clear that he plans to step up his public arguments.”

    Curiously, that single line was removed from the Times’ print edition – and later from the online version after it initially went up.

    Mediaite flagged the “stealth” edit to the piece Friday morning.

    But the Times contends that the edit was routine, and made only for space reasons.

    “There’s nothing unusual here,” D.C. bureau chief Elisabeth Bumiller said in a statement. “That paragraph, near the bottom of the story, was trimmed for space in the print paper by a copy editor in New York late last night. But it was in our story on the web all day and read by many thousands of readers. Web stories without length constraints are routinely edited for print.”

    Nevertheless, the suggestion that Obama would have responded better had he only digested more cable news – a frequent subject of the president’s criticism — raised eyebrows.

    The session was apparently off-the-record, but the Times reported on it based on conversations with others in the room.

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