House Establishes A New Pecora Commission/Senate Passes A Very Weak Foreclosure Bill

Clown (R-OH) weeps for millions of evictions his policies caused

This afternoon, the Senate passed, 91-5, S. 896, Chris Dodd's tragically watered-down bill to prevent mortgage foreclosures. The only obstructionist assholes to vote against this inoffensive bill were Judd Gregg (R-NH) and 4 Calhounists, Jim Bunning (R-KY), Tom Coburn (R-OK), Jim DeMint (R-SC) and Jim Inhofe (R-OK). It was co-sponsored by Dick Durbin and Chuck Schumer but once the banksters stepped in, cracked the whip and defeated Durbin's amendment to put some teeth in the bill-- by giving bankruptcy a tiny bit of power over the mortgage holders-- the bill lost most people's attention. Almost a quarter of U.S. homeowners are underwater but the senators are still voting for the banksters who finance their careers. Anyone who votes for any senator-- regardless of party-- who voted against Durbin's amendment is either very rich and selfish or really teh stoopid. (Better yet, take a look at Mike Lux's 6 steps to dis-empowering Wall Street.) But even after voting down Durbin's attempt to do something real for American working families, the Republicans (and their Bayh Bloc allies) weren't finished trying to sabotage whatever was left of the bill. Since April 30th the Senate has worked on little else besides going through countless right-wing amendments meant to obstruct aiding economically hard-pressed families.

David Diapers Vitter (R-LA) kicked off the circus with a pair of amendments meant to screw over the taxpayers in regard to TARP-- half a dozen from Bayh's anti-Obama bloc, Bayh, Dorgan, Kohl, Lincoln, Ben Nelson and Webb, crossing the aisle-- and some snark about the Federal Housing Administration that only got 36 votes, none from Democrats, not even Ben Nelson. What followed were a slew of rejected obstructionist amendments by Corker, Thune, DeMint, and Coburn, all meant to hamper Obama from carrying out his attempt to dig out from the mess caused by these very same Republican rubber stamps of Bush and Big Business.

The amendment by John Kerry meant to help renters who live in homes that go into foreclosure by allowing tenants to remain in their homes for the duration of their leases passed 57-39, all Democrats voted yes, along with just one Republican, Olympia Snowe.

Meanwhile on the other side of Congress, the House overwhelmingly passed (367-59a call for a new Pecora Commission, the Fraud Enforcement Recovery Act. 117 Republicans abandoned their hopelessly obstructionist leadership and joined all 250 Democrats (including even the most vile and contemptibly corrupt Blue Dogs) in voting to protect taxpayers from unfettered bankster avarice by giving the Justice Department more tools to fight fraud in the use of TARP and recovery funds, and increasing accountability for corporate and mortgage frauds, causes of the current economic collapse. Who would vote against this? Only the most ideologically-minded far right maniacs like Michele Bachmann (R-MN), John Kline (R-MN), Virginia Foxx (R-NC), Steve King (R-IA), Paul Broun (R-GA), Mike Pence (R-IN), Adrian Smith (R-NE), Lynn Westmoreland (R-GA), Jeff Flake (R-AZ), Jason Chaffetz (R-UT), Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), and Tom Price (R-GA)-- plus the worst of the House's bribed shills of the banksters:

John Boehner (R-OH- $3,045,809)
Pete Sessions (R-TX- $2,730,126)
David Dreier (R-CA- $2,118,538)
Jeb Hensarling (R-TX- $2,111,371)
Ron Paul (R-TX- $1,686,375)-- I know, I know-- the truth hurts
Geoff Davis (R-KY- $1,612,969)
Sam Johnson (R-TX- $1,565,755)
Don Manzullo (R-IL- $1,388,429)
John Linder (R-GA- $1,337,577)
Dave Camp (R-MI- $1,332,147)
Randy Neugebauer (R-TX- $1,253,775)
John Shadegg (R-AZ- $1,191,961)
Sue Myrick (R-NC- $1,140,388)
Scott Garrett (R-NJ- $1,156,599)
Dan Burton (R-IN- $965,288)
Kay Granger (R-TX- $953,275)
Patrick McHenry (R-NC- $876,350)
John Campbell (R-CA- $832,785)
John Culberson (R-TX- $808,155)
Gresham Barrett (R-SC- $786,873)
Charles Boustany (R-LA- $744,062)

Even normally dependable in-the-pocket votes for all special interests, like Eric Cantor, Thaddeus McCotter, Ken Calvert, Dan Lungren, Paul Ryan and Mean Jean Schmidt, slinked across the aisle and voted for Nancy Pelosi's bill. We reached Russ Warner, who is currently spending his time talking with residents of in a district stretching from La Canada-Flintridge to Rancho Cucamonga, and asked him if he had an idea why David Dreier would be one of the only members of Congress to vote so blatantly in favor of this kind of financially debilitating corruption. Russ was very straight-forward: "I may be a bit biased, but I can't think of a bigger hypocrite in Washington, D.C. than David Dreier. Just the other day, he was joining the chorus of legislators calling for more federal oversight in the financial sector; today, he votes against the Fraud Enforcement and Recovery Act (FERA), legislation designed to prevent the sort of criminal conduct that damages our economy and harms hard working Americans. He may talk a good game, but it seems pretty clear where David Dreier's priorities lie."

Today Barney Frank (D-MA) spoke on the floor of the House about the predatory lending bill, and about how the Republicans continue to do everything in their thankfully decreasing power to block desperately needed regulation of the financial services industry.