Dems rip White House for going 'AWOL' on mortgage crisis

[Freddie Stubbs]

Source: The Hill

Leading House Democrats are accusing the Obama administration of ignoring the lingering mortgage crisis and threatening tens-of-millions of Americans with foreclosure in the process.

The lawmakers – encouraged by Obama's mention of mortgage-relief in his address to Congress last week – were quickly deflated just days later when their efforts to learn the details of the White House plan proved unsuccessful.

"The administration has been AWOL on this issue," charged Rep. Dennis Cardoza (D-Calif.), "and the American people are suffering because of the mismanagement."

"In my entire political career, I've never seen anything this irresponsible," he added.

Read more: http://thehill.com/homenews/house/181961-dems-rip-white-house-for-going-awol-on-mortgage-crisis-

[Donnachaidh]

1. Just one arrest and conviction of a major banker could restore a lot of people's opinions

of this administration.

How sad is that?

[Javaman]

3. Really sad.

the politicians can't bite the hand that feeds them.

washington is completely out of touch with the rest of the nation.

their pissing matches kills a little each time. The things that are supposed to "benefit" us, rarely if ever have a direct effect.

it all looks good on paper, until you look at the fine details and realize just how screwed we are.

[banned from Kos]

4. They tried with the King of Sub-Prime - Angelo Mozilo

couldn't prove a thing as sleazy as he was.

They got 15-20 others though.

[DeSwiss]

17. That.....

...would be "looking back."

- This administration doesn't do looking back. Remember?


K&R






http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/BILLS-112hres365ih/pdf/BILLS-112hres365ih.pdf">Pass H.R. 365!

[Enthusiast]

22. I'm in total agreement.

I guess we are supposed to overlook this.

[ProSense]

2. Well,

at least he likes the President's current proposal. From the OP article:

<...>

We’re going to work with federal housing agencies to help more people refinance their mortgages at interest rates that are now near 4 percent," Obama said. "That’s a step that can put more than $2,000 a year in a family’s pocket, and give a lift to an economy still burdened by the drop in housing prices."

From the audience, Cardoza – who represents one of the districts hit hardest by the foreclosure crisis – shot to his feet in applause.

<...>

Cardoza didn't limit his blame to the president, noting that Obama's pick to replace DeMarco with a permanent FHFA director was blocked by Sen. Richard Shelby (Ala.), senior Republican on the Banking Committee.

"That vacancy needs to be filled," Cardoza said, " the Senate needs to quit playing politics."

<...>

Here are the letters

September 9, 2011

<...>

Dear Acting Director DeMarco:

We are writing to request that you make key agency officials available next week for a meeting with Members to begin discussing a plan to review, evaluate, and implement the proposal made by the President last night to help more American families refinance their mortgages at historically low interest rates.

During his address to Congress, President Obama set forth a robust proposal to spur economic growth and help create jobs across the country though the American Jobs Act. According to various estimates, the President's proposal has the potential to grow the economy by one to three percent in 2012, create more than a million jobs, and significantly lower the unemployment rate.

A key part of the President's proposal is to help American families avoid foreclosures by assisting them in refinancing their mortgages at lower interest rates. This proposal would help not only these families, but their communities, investors, and the American taxpayers. As the President stated:

(T)o help responsible homeowners, we're going to work with Federal housing agencies to help more people refinance their mortgages at interest rates that are now near 4%—a step that can put more than $2,000 a year in a family's pocket, and give a lift to an economy still burdened by the drop in housing prices.

The President's proposal is similar to bipartisan legislation that has been introduced in Congress and has garnered widespread support from industry, investors, and consumer groups. There are currently more than 8 million homeowners whose mortgages are guaranteed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and are carrying an interest rate at or above 6%, even though current 30-year mortgage rates are hovering at about 4.12%.4 According to Bill Gross, managing director and co-CIO of the world's largest bond fund, PIMCO, removing barriers to refinancing under these proposals could provide an economic stimulus of up to $50 billion or $60 billion.

For these reasons, we request that you designate appropriate officials from your agency to meet with Members next week in order to begin discussing an approach to expeditiously executing the President's proposal. We have tentatively scheduled this meeting for 4 pm on Thursday, September 15, 2011, but we are willing to adjust our calendars to make necessary accommodations.

Thank you for your consideration, and we look forward to working with your agency on this critical issue.

September 13, 2011

<...>

Dear Acting Director DeMarco:

On Thursday evening, President Obama delivered an address to Congress and the Nation proposing several ways to spur economic growth and help create jobs across the country, including a proposal to help American families avoid foreclosures by refinancing their mortgages at historically low interest rates. The President stated:

(T)o help responsible homeowners, we're going to work with Federal housing agencies to help more people refinance their mortgages at interest rates that are now near 4%—a step that can put more than $2,000 a year in a family's pocket, and give a lift to an economy still burdened by the drop in housing prices.

Bill Gross, the Managing Director and co-CIO of the world's largest bond fund, PIMCO, believes that removing barriers to refinancing under this type of proposal could provide an economic stimulus of up to $50 or $60 billion.

For these reasons, on Friday, Rep. Elijah E. Cummings, Ranking Member of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, and Rep. Dermis Cardoza, Co-Chair of the Housing Stabilization Task Force, wrote to you on our behalf with this request:

We are writing to request that you make key agency officials available next week for a meeting with Members to begin discussing a plan to review, evaluate, and implement the proposal made by the President last night to help more American families refinance their mortgages at historically low interest rates.

We were dismayed, therefore, to learn that your Office of Congressional Affairs sent an email response later that day indicating that officials from your agency believe it would be premature to "brief Members of Congress before they resolve the details of their response to the President's proposal.

Contrary to the assertion made by your Office of Congressional Affairs, the letter from Representatives Cummings and Cardoza did not request a “briefing.” It requested a meeting that would enable us to begin a detailed dialogue about the process by which agency officials will “review, evaluate, and implement the President's proposal.”

Contrary to another assertion made by the Office of Congressional Affairs, this meeting would not be premature—if anything, it is overdue. Legislation similar to the President's proposal has been pending in both the House and Senate for months. On Friday, you issued a public statement in response to the President's address indicating that your office has been “analyzing these issues” and discussing them with “a range of stakeholders.” As Members of Congress who have been tirelessly seeking to support renewed economic growth by stabilizing the housing market, we certainly deserve the same courtesy and consideration as other stakeholders in this process.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac guarantee more than 50% of all existing mortgages, including the mortgages of millions of responsible U.S. homeowners who are currently underwater. We appreciate that FHFA is examining ways to respond to the President's call to action, but we would like to speak with the officials responsible for implementing this proposal now rather than later.

For these reasons, we renew our request that the appropriate agency officials be made available for a meeting with Members to discuss these issues on Thursday, September 15, at 4:00 p.m.

Congress needs to pass the damn bill!

[lovelyrita]

21. How does refinancing help people who are underwater?

Where I live in Central Florida, home prices have dropped so much that people can't sell their homes. They need to change the amount people owe to reflect the value of the homes. It is crazy to have a $300,000 mortgage on a house worth $200,000.

[chill_wind]

5. Third Way seems to want the admin to align with Republicans to "rip the bandaid off really fast"

(in the name of more grand bargaining) on those millions of - you know- irresponsible deadbeats. :sarcasm:


Rather than with those Dems above, who want more help and relief for these struggling families.

Therein lies another possible bargain: Obama and Republicans could agree to try a double-barreled attempt to get foreclosure rates back to historically normal levels. They could reverse the administration’s recent efforts to slow the foreclosure process for delinquent borrowers and, instead, take steps to shuttle the most-troubled home­owners—the ones who borrowed beyond their means—out of their houses and into rental units as fast as possible. Keith Hennessey, a former economic adviser to President George W. Bush, compares that effort to removing a Band-Aid: “Policies for several years now—including under the administration I worked for—have focused on trying to keep people in their homes,” says Hennessey, now a research fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution. “That stretches out the problem,” pulling the bandage off slowly. Maybe now, he says, it’s time to “rip it off really fast. Stop trying to help keep people who can’t afford to be in their homes stay in their homes.”

On Jobs, Grand Bargains for Politicians to Get America Back to Work
Remember the unemployed? With the debt limit raised, here’s how to help them.

http://www.nationaljournal.com/magazine/some-possible-grand-bargains-on-jobs-and-unemployment-20110804

(article that was posted in Third Way's press release section in August)

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=439&topic_id=1670652&mesg_id=1670652

And they were very opposed to any kind of moratorium until better investigation and sorting out of the disaster could take place, when that was discussed almost a year ago.

The Case Against a Foreclosure Moratorium
http://www.thirdway.org/publications/342

Sounds like the admin continues to struggle with more ambivalence on what policy direction to go.

Another problem, Costa charged, is that the administration is sending community banks conflicting messages. On one hand, the White House is asking them to build up capital and write off their bad loans, he said. On the other, it's asking them to help struggling homeowners refinance in ways that would hurt the banks' bottom line.

"Their policies are in contradiction with one another," Costa said.

Consumer groups, meanwhile, are wondering why it's taken so long for policymakers to turn their sights on the lingering housing crisis, which was a central cause of the Great Recession to begin with.

None of this is helped by the news of the latest surge in default notices.
Yesterday's thread:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x4995247

[KoKo]

9. Good links...Thanks!

[No Elephants]

19. How surprising that Third Way is aligned with Republicans.

As usual.

[shraby]

6. Congress is AWOL on the mortgage crisis..they aren't

helpless about passing some regulations to ease the problem. Can't they chew gum and run at the same time?

[julian09]

10. They "Dem legislative critics" should work on the problem

It may be nice to put someone away; but will not help homeowners seeking relief.
It is their job to show leadership not just follow but find solutions to the problems the country faces.:shrug: :shrug:

[DeSwiss]

18. Well they did.

Remember? Obama's mortgage relief program that was designed not to work because his buddies at the banks weren't interested? Surely you remember those two years back in 2009 and 2010 when the Democrats had both houses and the WH? Or, maybe I just imagined it all. Yeah that would explain it.


- We're all having the same nightmare.....

[mother earth]

7. It's the looking away without doing one thing that's the

greatest of disappointments, not just with the bankers, absolutely with the previous admin that brought us into the economic chaos that's not going away anytime soon. Our country and the economy was given away to private interests, war profiteers, bankers, oil industry, while every working part of gov't was dismantled from within, all in the name of terror. The real terrorists were Bush/Cheney who brought us never ending war. Nary a word spoken about treason, which it truly was and is.

[annm4peace]

8. US priorities are really sick

http://www.wareconomy.org/store/

[GoCubsGo]

11. And, what is their excuse?

Are they so helpless they can't pass legislation to deal with the problem on their own? Do they need the President to hold their hands? This is the first time I have heard any of them even mention mortgages. Where the hell have THEY been over the past two and a half years?

[brentspeak]

13. A simple Google search would have given you your answer

Congressional Democrats have been trying for over two years to get the White House to do the right thing re. mortgages.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/12/14/geithner-blocking-legal-h_n_796773.html

Geithner Blocking Legal Help For Foreclosure Victims

WASHINGTON -- Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner has authorized big payouts to banks in an effort to encourage mortgage modifications, but is preventing borrowers in danger of losing their homes from accessing legal assistance under the Obama administration's foreclosure relief plan -- even when banks are wrongfully or fraudulently attempting evictions.

As of August, the administration's foreclosure prevention program -- which had paid a total of $231.5 million to banks -- had paid nothing specifically for borrower's legal fees, despite the urging of congressional Democrats who say legal funding is critical to easing the crisis.

Democrats from foreclosure-battered states are pushing new legislation that would overrule Geithner's edict, but the legislation is doomed this session with apathy from leadership in both parties and a packed lame duck calendar.

snip

Now Sen. Brown and Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio) are pushing new legislation that would explicitly overrule Geithner's opinion. They're hoping to get the bill through during the lame duck session, but to get any traction they'll need help from top Republicans and Democrats in both the Senate Banking Committee and the House Financial Services Committee. With just a few days left in the lame-duck session, there's little prospect for the bill to move through both chambers.

[Lorien]

16. Attack the messengers again? That's the best defense you've got?

Does the President need anyone to hold HIS hand?? The cheerleaders have painted him as a helpless victim for years now. Helpless victims make shitty "leaders".

[tblue]

12. Governing by the seat of your pants isn't working.

This is what you get when you don't have a plan. No cohesion. No consistency. No clear vision. When your guiding principle is expediency, your product is founded on low-hanging fruit and small potatoes. It's like losing 1/100th of a pound. Your loyalest supporters may praise you, and you might take a victory lap, but you haven't really done anything. No one can see it or feel it and you wonder what it takes to get people to cheer you.

(I know this sounds stupid. Sorry. I'm pecking with one finger on my phone!)

[The Stranger]

14. Instead of "ripping" the White House, WTF WON'T THEY DO SOMETHING THEMSELVES?

Better to light a candle than to curse the darkness.

[Lorien]

15. Obama is supposed to be taking the lead on the issues

that's kind of the point here. The President is supposed to DO SOMETHING other than advance the GOP agenda.

[No Elephants]

20. Please see Reply 18