Rep. Brad Miller: Mortgage Crisis Won't Be Solved Until Banks Are Forced To Help (AUDIO)

The financial industry keeps defeating attempts at reform, according to North Carolina Rep. Brad Miller (D - North Carolina).

"I have just about pulled my hair out trying," Rep. Miller said, speaking to MSNBC's Dylan Ratigan's "Radio Free Dylan" podcast posted today. "But until we get something in place that is not entirely voluntary for the banks, we just are not going to get an orderly resolution of the household debt tied up in mortgages."

The congressman, who represents North Carolina's 13th District, said the financial industry defeated several attempts at resolving troubled mortgage debt since the housing crisis first took hold. Miller cite the 2009 bankruptcy modification bill, also known as "cramdown," which would have helped homeowners beat foreclosures through bankruptcy and failed in congress.

"And people just feel tormented like they're a mouse captured by a cat," Miller told the MSNBC host during the radio discussion. "I mean they are in torment over mortgages they cannot pay and cannot get out of and they keep getting offered modifications that just deal their mis-payments into ... the principal."

Many people ended up with modifications they still couldn't afford, he added.

"The Dylan Ratigan Show" is running a weeklong "No Way To Live" series on the financial crisis and its impact on ordinary Americans, in partnership with The Huffington Post. Check back here regularly for new posts in the series.

LISTEN to the broadcast here.