Another Watered Down Bill To Ameliorate Foreclosures Passes-- No Big Deal, Unfortunately

Yesterday the House passed the amended (watered down) version of the Helping Families Save Their Homes Act. As usual, the Senate-- you know, that exclusive, conservative club that's owned by the banksters-- made it less friendly towards working families and more friendly for their powerful campaign contributors. The authorization for bankruptcy judges to change mortgage terms under certain circumstances has been stripped out of the bill. It's better than a poke in the eye but far less than working families distressed by predatory banksters should have expected. In fact, the Senate screwed up Conyers' original bill badly enough so that the original 234-191 passage back in March turned into an overwhelming... victory. All the slimy Blue Dogs and a shitload of Republicans who had voted no back in March, were on board yesterday.

Yep, back on March 5 only 7 Republicans voted yes (and 2 dozen, mostly slimy, Democrats, voted no). But yesterday there were only 3 Democrats who voted no-- and only one a Blue Dog-- and 123 Republicans abandoned the most extremist and obstructionist and corrupt in their caucus to cross the aisle and vote with the Democrats. It passed, overwhelmingly, 367-54-1.

The Republicans voting "no," were the usual suspects-- Todd Akin (R-MO), Michele Bachmann (R-MN), Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), Paul Broun (R-GA), John Culberson (R-TX), Virginia Foxx (R-NC), Scott Garrett (R-NJ), Jeb Hensarling (R-TX), Darrell Issa (R-CA), Steve King (R-IA), Doug Lamborn (R-CO), Connie Mack (R-FL), Tom McClintock (R-CA), Patty McHenry (R-NC), Mike Pence (R-IN), Tom Price (R-GA), Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA), Pete Sessions (R-TX), John Shadegg (R-AZ), Lynn Westmoreland (R-GA)... the whole batch of irrelevant imbeciles who always just vote against everything that would go even part way towards relieving the burdens their policies have places on working families. But it isn't the 54 who voted "no" or the 367 who voted "yes" that I want to focus on today.

Instead, it is the one member who voted "present," Marcy Kaptur, who I want to take a look at this morning. She supported the original bill, enthusiastically. Perhaps you remember the powerful and inspiring speech she made urging the victims of predatory banksters to get lawyers and fight their evictions. We asked her what changed her mind. She didn't mince words:

This is just another cosmetic bill that continues to severely disadvantage-- indeed "hollow out"-- communities impacted by huge subprime foreclosures in allowing Wall Street megabanks and their outside investor allies to buy up affected properties at a huge discount.

It allows Wall Street operatives to substantially underbid local communities in acquiring affected properties, thus severely limiting the effectiveness of the NSP. It does nothing to bring Wall Street firms to the table to achieve the necessary workouts.

She's right.



UPDATE: Senate Waters Down Two More And Sends Them To The House For Passage-- House Does As Its Told

After the Senate partially gutted the Truth in Lending Act, meant to "establish fair and transparent practices relating to the extension of credit," the House complacently agreed to their bankster-approved version in three consecutive votes. First came a general rule to consider which passed 247-180, only two Republicans crossing the aisle to lend a hand to consumers being preyed upon by crooked credit card companies. Meanwhile, 4 of the most corrupt and reactionary Democrats voted, as they always do, with the GOP: Baron Hill (Blue Dog-IN), Walt Minnick (Blue Dog-ID), Gabby Giffords (Blue Dog-AZ), and Jason Altmire (Blue Dog-PA). Two principled progressives, Raul Grijalva (D-AZ) and Caroline McCarthy (D-NY), voted "no" for the same kinds of reasons Marcy Kaptur couldn't bring herself to vote for the watered-down foreclosure bill. The House then voted 361-64 to pass the whole bill not counting Coburn's attempted poison pill (an OK to bring heavy weapons into national parks). The only Democrat voting against the bill was Stephanie Herseth Sandlin (Blue Dog-SD) whose career has been purchased by the credit card companies. And the 63 Republicans were just the regular motley crew of the worst of the worst bottom-feeders: major bribe takers like Blackburn, Boehner, Cantor, Mack, McHenry, Ryan, Shadegg, etc... the whole shameful bunch.

A few minutes later they voted specifically on Coburn's Section 512-- the NRA nonsense that the shitheads in the Senate blithely passed. Most Democrats voted against it but 195 joined 174 Republicans to allow guns into National Parks. All the most reactionary Democrats were part of that brigade-- plus anyone afraid of the right-wing media attack machine. Those who favor gun control should thank Republicans Mike Castle (DE) and Mark Kirk (IL) for joining most of the progressive Democrats in opposing this, particularly Democrats in tough districts who know this will be used against them, such as John Hall (D-NY), Carol Shea-Porter (D-NH), Joe Sestak (D-PA), Ben Ray Luján (D-NM), Dave Loebsack (D-IA), Loretta Sanchez (D-CA), and Gary Peters (D-MI).

When Lawrence Wilkerson said the Congress has been "spineless" he was talking about how they put up with a systemically dishonest CIA but he could just of easily have been speaking about the Democrats on domestic policy. The clip is worth watching (even if it forces you to watch the brain-dead ex-Fox nitwit, Kirin Chetry, questioning him). "I'm talking about the leadership in the Congress. This has been the most feckless Congress ever since 2000 that I’ve seen in my 65 years. I just don’t think there’s leadership over there. It’s spineless, it lacks courage, lacks political will. I shudder for the fact that we’ve got to face these economic and financial challenges we’ve got to face-- Iran, Afghanistan, North Korea and other things-- and we don’t have a Congress that has any leadership.”