Sweeney on Target on Housing Legislation; Bush and Shelby Protect Criminals
AFL-CIO president, John Sweeney, is on target about the mortgage foreclosure crisis legislation and Dubya's deliberately myopic stupidity.
Sweeney said: "This bill is an important step toward keeping millions of struggling families from losing everything they have worked for all their lives.
"President Bush’s threat to veto this legislation is both inhumane and dangerously short-sighted. The funds in this legislation are an investment in healthy communities, vibrant neighborhoods and a stable economy.
"If the President is truly concerned about assisting undeserving speculators, he should take a strong stand against provisions in the Senate-passed bill, which would bail out developers to the tune of millions even though many homebuilders profited from their own subprime lending and speculative over-heating of the market.
"The House and Senate should remove this provision in conference and replace it with provisions allowing families to save their primary residence in bankruptcy. In the short term, there should be a moratorium on foreclosures put in place long enough for families on the brink to restructure their mortgages to 30-year fixed mortgages at the teaser rate.
"The roots of this crisis lie in the lack of effective regulation of the mortgage and other financial markets and on our economic policy makers’ reliance on asset inflation to power economic growth in recent years. Falling or stagnant real wages, extreme inequality and the dominance of financial gimmickry over good jobs that create real value have left tens of millions of Americans dependent on borrowing to sustain their standard of living."
However, as long as there are people like Senator Richard Shelby in Congress, working Americans will always get the short end of the stick.
As the NYTimes reports, "He has made millions as a title insurance executive, landlord and real estate developer in this college town, where the economy, despite trouble nationwide, is still growing nicely. Now, as a United States senator, with the mortgage mess fueling a national economic slowdown, Richard C. Shelby has more say over the revamping of housing finance laws than almost anyone else in Congress.
"...as the ranking Republican on the Senate Banking Committee, he is using his clout and the Democrats’ slim majority in the Senate to help determine what gets in, or almost as important, what is left out, of legislation.
"He will soon play a major role in deciding the fate of one such bill, to help struggling homeowners, that the House passed, 266 to 154, on Thursday.
"But over the years, his critics say, Mr. Shelby’s ties to the mortgage industry and the Alabama real estate market, and the generous campaign donations he receives from financial services companies, have distorted his perspective and led him to delay critical legislative remedies.
"Indeed, Mr. Shelby’s legislative and business worlds have often intersected. For instance, while on the Banking Committee, he financed an apartment complex he owns in Tuscaloosa with a $5 million loan from Freddie Mac, the same government-sponsored mortgage company whose regulation his committee is reshaping.
"Mr. Shelby said in an interview his business dealings posed no conflict.
"Others see it differently. 'Senator Shelby would have prevented anything going through that the industry was not happy with,' said Representative Brad Miller, Democrat of North Carolina, who has pushed legislation to crack down on predatory lending, an effort that has stalled in the Senate in part because of Mr. Shelby’s reservations. 'That’s the sense from all the people who are involved in the issue.'
"Representative Barney Frank, the Massachusetts Democrat who leads the House Banking Committee and has won points for working with the Bush administration on housing issues, said he had been surprised by Mr. Shelby’s unwillingness to accept several proposals like a permanent increase in the cap to $730,000 from about $360,000 on home loans that can be federally insured.
" 'I think he has been the major obstacle,' Mr. Frank said, calling it 'a serious problem in getting things done.' "
It is the deregulation, no regulations, lack of oversight Bush administration and the Richard Shelby's in Congress whose greedy, anything goes corporate cronies caused this mortgage lending financial catastrophe and whom they protect and promote instead of serving the common good.
Sweeney said: "This bill is an important step toward keeping millions of struggling families from losing everything they have worked for all their lives.
"President Bush’s threat to veto this legislation is both inhumane and dangerously short-sighted. The funds in this legislation are an investment in healthy communities, vibrant neighborhoods and a stable economy.
"If the President is truly concerned about assisting undeserving speculators, he should take a strong stand against provisions in the Senate-passed bill, which would bail out developers to the tune of millions even though many homebuilders profited from their own subprime lending and speculative over-heating of the market.
"The House and Senate should remove this provision in conference and replace it with provisions allowing families to save their primary residence in bankruptcy. In the short term, there should be a moratorium on foreclosures put in place long enough for families on the brink to restructure their mortgages to 30-year fixed mortgages at the teaser rate.
"The roots of this crisis lie in the lack of effective regulation of the mortgage and other financial markets and on our economic policy makers’ reliance on asset inflation to power economic growth in recent years. Falling or stagnant real wages, extreme inequality and the dominance of financial gimmickry over good jobs that create real value have left tens of millions of Americans dependent on borrowing to sustain their standard of living."
However, as long as there are people like Senator Richard Shelby in Congress, working Americans will always get the short end of the stick.
As the NYTimes reports, "He has made millions as a title insurance executive, landlord and real estate developer in this college town, where the economy, despite trouble nationwide, is still growing nicely. Now, as a United States senator, with the mortgage mess fueling a national economic slowdown, Richard C. Shelby has more say over the revamping of housing finance laws than almost anyone else in Congress.
"...as the ranking Republican on the Senate Banking Committee, he is using his clout and the Democrats’ slim majority in the Senate to help determine what gets in, or almost as important, what is left out, of legislation.
"He will soon play a major role in deciding the fate of one such bill, to help struggling homeowners, that the House passed, 266 to 154, on Thursday.
"But over the years, his critics say, Mr. Shelby’s ties to the mortgage industry and the Alabama real estate market, and the generous campaign donations he receives from financial services companies, have distorted his perspective and led him to delay critical legislative remedies.
"Indeed, Mr. Shelby’s legislative and business worlds have often intersected. For instance, while on the Banking Committee, he financed an apartment complex he owns in Tuscaloosa with a $5 million loan from Freddie Mac, the same government-sponsored mortgage company whose regulation his committee is reshaping.
"Mr. Shelby said in an interview his business dealings posed no conflict.
"Others see it differently. 'Senator Shelby would have prevented anything going through that the industry was not happy with,' said Representative Brad Miller, Democrat of North Carolina, who has pushed legislation to crack down on predatory lending, an effort that has stalled in the Senate in part because of Mr. Shelby’s reservations. 'That’s the sense from all the people who are involved in the issue.'
"Representative Barney Frank, the Massachusetts Democrat who leads the House Banking Committee and has won points for working with the Bush administration on housing issues, said he had been surprised by Mr. Shelby’s unwillingness to accept several proposals like a permanent increase in the cap to $730,000 from about $360,000 on home loans that can be federally insured.
" 'I think he has been the major obstacle,' Mr. Frank said, calling it 'a serious problem in getting things done.' "
It is the deregulation, no regulations, lack of oversight Bush administration and the Richard Shelby's in Congress whose greedy, anything goes corporate cronies caused this mortgage lending financial catastrophe and whom they protect and promote instead of serving the common good.
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