They give us crumbs...Dems compromise on Mortgage Relief Modification

[debbierlus]

We indebt our children to the tune of trillions of dollars and they give us crumbs. These fucking banks should be giving a UNIVERSAL interest rate drop on all mortgages. People in foreclosure should get an automatic stay, and renegotiation of their loan. This bill does nothing but put homeowners into a sea of bureacratic red tape. Million of people are losing their homes, and the bankruptcy courts aren't equipped to deal with such an onslaught. This program could be easily streamlined so a few parameters are met.

Note that the 'moderate' dems demanded mortgage modifications as a last resort (god forbid the bank lose out on any of its loan shark loan money - people pay triple the worth of their house in mortgages not to mention the thousands upon thousands each bank gets upfront from fees and closing).

When are the American people going to stand up and say ENOUGH?! These banks are gulping trillions, giving nothing, and we are suppossed to think something is being done in the American peoples' interest?

This system has broken us. And, it will break them. They are so blind with greed that they still are believe they can just take & take & take & take and not have it fall apart for everyone INCLUDING them. Disgusting.

I am putting Maxine Waters quote on the bill here from the article below:

Some liberals said the new limits were inappropriate. Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., said many mortgage companies make it impossible for homeowners to even complete a phone call to their lender, much less work out more affordable loan terms.

"I don't think people ought to have to go through that mess" to get mortgage relief in bankruptcy courts, Waters said.



http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Democrats-reach-deal-on-apf-14539706.html

WASHINGTON (AP) -- For key moderate Democrats in the House, giving debt-strapped homeowners the right to seek mortgage modifications in bankruptcy court had to be a last resort.

So they wrote a compromise to a housing bill that requires bankruptcy judges to consider whether banks offered homeowners reasonable loan restructuring deals before they weigh in with judicial remedies.

The new language is expected to ease the bill onto the House floor for a vote as early as Thursday.

"The concern is that we want to ensure that those people who get relief have tried other avenues," House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., said Tuesday.

Borrowers also would have a responsibility to prove that they tried to modify their mortgages with their lenders before seeking help in bankruptcy court.

Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., one of the centrist negotiators on the bill, said homeowners in fear of losing their homes would have to show that they provided their financial documents to their lenders, "not just a phone call to an answering machine."

The deal would require judges to consider whether homeowners were offered a "qualified" loan workout -- defined as one that would set monthly payments equal to about one-third of a homeowner's income.

Bankruptcy judges would have to deny a judicial mortgage adjustment in cases where the homeowner is deemed able to afford the loan.

The changes bring the legislation closer in line to what President Barack Obama's administration has sought and what the banking lobby finds acceptable. The mortgage industry has argued that unfettered access to bankruptcy court mortgage modifications would impose steep and unpredictable costs on its companies that would be passed along to borrowers as higher fees and interest rates.

Their opposition helped derail the bill last week, even after leading Democrats agreed to restrict it to people who had tried other means of reworking their mortgages and those who couldn't afford their home loans.

The industry has "been giving it everything they've got," said Rep. Brad Miller, D-N.C., an architect of the legislation. "They still have remarkable influence."

Still, Miller and some other backers of the idea said they support the new plan.

"It would encourage lenders to make modifications and there would be consequences if they don't do it," Miller said.

Democrats discussed the compromise in a closed meeting Tuesday with Housing Secretary Shaun Donovan, who told them the legislation would dovetail with the administration's overall efforts to reduce foreclosures. Obama unveiled a $75 billion housing initiative two weeks ago that included a call for legislation to permit adjustments to mortgages in bankruptcy court.

Following the session, Lofgren and two other moderate Democrats -- Ellen Tauscher and Dennis Cardoza of California -- circulated a letter seeking support for their compromise.

"Some may think the changes made to the bill go too far while others will contend that they do not go far enough," the "Dear Colleague" letter said. "Given the ever-deepening housing crisis, however, we ask you to place such differences aside -- as we have done -- and support this effort."

Some liberals said the new limits were inappropriate. Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., said many mortgage companies make it impossible for homeowners to even complete a phone call to their lender, much less work out more affordable loan terms.

"I don't think people ought to have to go through that mess" to get mortgage relief in bankruptcy courts, Waters said.

She said the banking industry still has a stranglehold on Congress. "These guys rule this place," Waters said.

[debbierlus]

1. I miss the days when DU was a place where people talked about policy

[Skip Intro]

2. How many votes would this need in the Senate?

I agree with you that they toss us crumbs, and make us jump through hoops to get them, and that protection of the banks seems to be the paramount concern. But that there would be a door to the courts to rewrite loans at all is a step. I wonder, if the House passes this, would it need 60 votes in the Senate to reach Obama's desk, or 50.