Obama: If Elected, I'll Return All Houses To 2005 Values

Democratic Presidential candidate Barack Obama today told a hastily assembled Prairie View, Texas news conference that if elected he would "return all houses to their 2005 prices as a way of shoring up the economy and solving the banking crisis."

Obama said that "Americans are relying on their house values for their retirement, their children's educations, and their general sense of confidence about the future. If elected, I'll create a government fund to make up the difference on the price of all houses sold between what the seller gets and what the house was worth in 2005."

Simply knowing that their houses haven't declined in value, Obama told reporters, would give the housing market "a needed jumpstart" because "housing drives the economy, and this would bail out homeowners whose homes have dropped in value since the banking crisis began."

Obama said he was calling the bailout "No Homeowner Left Behind."

Asked how the government would finance this bailout of homeowners, Obama said, "We'll take the money from the same place we were going to take money in order to bail out the banks, wherever that place is."

Obama said that as an act of patriotism, he would be the first to seek assistance under this new government program, by first taking out a new line of credit on his home, based on its 2005 value, and then by selling it at a loss but having the government make up the difference.

"We're hoping to move to Washington," Obama confided to reporters. "In January, before the housing market can come back. No Homeowner Left Behind, based on my experience as a community organizer, will save the economy billions of dollars. Yes, we can."