I rise in opposition to this bill. The public is being led to believe that Congress has reconsidered its position because we have before us a better bill than we had a few days ago. It is the same bill plus hundreds of new pages for…
I rise in opposition to this bill.
The public is being led to believe that Congress has reconsidered its position because we have before us a better bill than we had a few days ago. It is the same bill plus hundreds of new pages for hundreds of millions of tax breaks. What does this have to do with the troubles of Wall Street?
Driven by fear we are moving quickly to pass a bill, which may produce a temporary uptick for the market but nothing for millions of homeowners whose misfortunes are at the center of our economic woes. People do not have money to pay their mortgages. After this passes, they will still not have money to pay their mortgages. People will still lose their homes while Wall Street is bailed out.
The central flaw of this bill is that there are no stronger protections for homeowners and no changes in the language to ensure that the secretary has the authority to compel mortgage servicers to modify the terms of mortgages. And there are no stronger regulatory changes to fix the circumstances that allowed this to happen.
We should have created a mechanism for our Government to take a controlling interest in mortgage-backed securities and use our power to work out a new deal for the homeowners. We could have done this. We should have done this. But we didn't.
Now millions of Americans will face the threat of foreclosure without any help. And the numbers will soon rise for a number of reasons. Not only because of the Alt-A, jumbo mortgages which will soon be reset at higher interest rates, but because the London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR) is pushing up rates on adjustable mortgages and more than half of the U.S. adjustable mortgage rates are tied to LIBOR. Homeowner defaults will grow in significant numbers. Let's see if Congress will be as quick to help homeowners on Main Street as they were to help speculators on Wall Street.
Now the Government will have to borrow $700 billion from banks, with interest, to give banks a $700 billion bailout, and in return the taxpayers get $700 billion in toxic debt. The Senate ``improved'' the bailout by giving tax breaks to people in foreclosure. People in foreclosure need help paying their mortgage, they do not seek tax breaks.
Across our Nation, foreclosures continue to devastate our communities, people are losing their jobs, and the prices of necessities are skyrocketing. This legislation, just like the one we defeated last week, will do nothing to solve the problems plaguing American families or help them to get out from underneath the oppressive debt they have been forced to take on.
Unfortunately, there has been no discussion of the underlying debt- based economy and the role of our monetary system in facilitating the redistribution of wealth upwards.
It is not as though we had no choice but to pass the bill before us. We could have done this differently. We could have demanded language in the legislation that would have empowered the Treasury to compel mortgage servicers to rework the terms of mortgage loans so homeowners could avoid foreclosure. We could have put regulatory structures in place to protect investors. We could have stopped the speculators.
This bill represents an utter failure of the democratic process. It represents the triumph of special interest over the triumph of the public interest. It represents the inability of Government to defend the public interest in the face of great pressure from financial interests. We could have recognized the power of Government to prime the pump of the economy to get money flowing through out society by creating jobs, health care, and major investments in green energy. What a lost opportunity! What a moment of transition away from democracy and towards domination of America by global economic interests.
Years ago, in a Cleveland neighborhood, I saw a hand-scrawled sign above a cash register in a delicatessen. The sign said: ``In God We Trust, All Others Pay Cash.'' The sign above the Speaker's rostrum reads ``In God We Trust,'' but today we are paying the cash to Wall Street.
It is not as if we had no other choice but to pass this bill.
[From Ohio.com, Oct. 3, 2008]
Foreclosure Victim, 90, Apparently Shoots Self
(By Phil Trexler)
At the age of 90, Addie Polk found herself in foreclosure
this week, about to be forced from the home she's lived in
for nearly 40 years.
So, with a gun in her hand, the Akron widow apparently shot
herself in the chest Wednesday afternoon as deputies were
knocking on her door with eviction papers in hand.
While a nation reels in financial crisis from years of
mortgage abuse, Polk is recovering at Akron General Medical
Center, awaiting word on where she will live when she's
released.
Meanwhile, city leaders say Polk has become Akron's
``poster child'' for victims of predatory lenders.
``I think this is a case where we need to step in and help
this lady if she is so desperate to shoot herself because she
can't pay her mortgage,'' Akron Councilman Marco Sommerville
said.
Court records show Polk took out a 30-year, 6.375 percent
mortgage just four years ago for $45,620 with a Countrywide
Home Loan office in Cuyahoga Falls. She took out a line of
credit that same day for $11,380.
Her La Croix Avenue home was appraised by Summit County in
2004 at $31,230.
The Countrywide branch did not return a call for comment
Thursday.
Polk essentially owed the same $45,000 when the Federal
National Mortgage Association (Fannie Mae) filed for
foreclosure on her home in 2007. Fannie Mae assumed the
mortgage from Countrywide.
Following foreclosure this year, Polk's six-room, 101-year-
old home was bought by Fannie Mae at sheriffs auction for
$28,000.
Her house now belongs to the lender.
Summit County sheriffs deputies say Polk ignored multiple
notes and letters leading up to Wednesday's eviction. She
also ignored the foreclosure action filed in court.
It wasn't until Tuesday that she called the sheriffs office
in disbelief. The next day was eviction day.
``I'm positive she believed the deputies were going to come
in, clean out the house and set her and her things on the
curb, because they did that decades ago. But that's not what
happens nowadays,'' sheriffs Lt. Kandy Fatheree said.
``I'm sure she had to be thinking back to the Great
Depression when people were set out on the street. She had to
be scared to death.''
Deputies Dave Bailey, Jason Beam and Don Fatheree went to
the home about 1 p.m. Wednesday to meet with a Fannie Mae
representative and escort Polk from the house. They said they
had no idea the woman was 90 years old.
The deputies' knocks were unanswered, and they were about
to leave because the Fannie Mae representative failed to
show. Then, they heard a banging noise coming from the home's
second floor.
Next-door neighbor Robert Dillon heard it, too. More bangs
followed.
Dillon borrowed a neighbor's ladder and climbed through
Polk's second-floor bathroom window and walked into her
bedroom. She was lying on her side, a gun next to her on the
bed.
``I'm thinking to myself, `Why does Mrs. Polk got a gun?'
'' Dillon said. ``After looking around, I touched her
shoulder and saw the blood and I said, `Shucks, she done shot
herself.' ''
Dillon, 62, shouted to the deputies, who alerted Akron EMS.
Polk apparently shot herself more than once with a small-
caliber handgun, police said.
Polk and her late husband, Robert, a Goodrich retiree,
moved into the home in 1970. He died in 1995, but Polk
continued to live independently, but alone, still driving her
late model Chevrolet to the grocery store and church.
She appeared to be struggling financially, Dillon said, but
he said she never spoke of the foreclosure action looming for
more than a year.
She had no children of her own and few visitors, he said.
``She didn't need no help. She got around good,'' he said.
It is unclear how Polk used the loan money. Dillon said he
didn't notice any work being done on the property, and
deputies said her front porch was soft from years of neglect.
``Where'd the money go?'' Dillon asked.
Sommerville said he is working with the city and the county
to assist Polk with housing, once she is released from the
hospital.
He said the city has been awarded more than $8 million in
federal grants in the wake of the mortgage crisis to help
cope with the crush.
Sommerville said Polk's fate humanizes the problem for the
rich and poor. And he urged those facing foreclosure to seek
assistance through various local and county agencies.
``It's a sad situation,'' he said. ``She's the poster child
for this foreclosure crisis we are facing.''