As the housing/mortgage crisis intensifies, some courageous Democrats like Rep. Brad Miller (D-NC) are trying to let judges help people stay in their home and stop foreclosures. Unfortunately, as my new nationally syndicated newspaper column out today shows, Miller is facing serious opposition not just from Republicans, but from "conservative" Democrats.
Miller's bill, HR 3609 (which you can find out about here), would improve the 2005 Bankruptcy Bill by simply giving regular homeowners a few of the same protections that millionaire mansion owners and Enron executives have. Yet, the Blue Dog Democrats, citing their supposed "conservatism," are trying to stop the legislation dead in its tracks. Somehow, we are expected to believe that the social/cultural conservatism of their rural and exurban districts mean their constituents want Congress to help banks throw people out of their houses.
Overall, Miller's bill could help keep 600,000 households in their homes. As the Denver Post reports, that's almost 6,000 throughout Colorado. And the problem is just as pronounced in many Blue Dog Democrats' districts. For example, the Kansas City Kansan reports that the district of Rep. Dennis Moore (D-KS) - who was cited by National Journal for his efforts to stop Miller's bill - could face almost 800 foreclosures. In Rep. Jim Marshall's (D-GA) district, Miller's bill would save more than 1,400 families from being foreclosed on. Incredibly (or, predictably) both signed the letter demanding Miller's bill be quashed.
Give Rep. Miller a lot of credit on this one. His state houses the headquarters of some of the biggest banks in the world, and yet he is pushing a super-populist proposal to start dealing with the mortgage meltdown. Help him by using this website to contact your Member of Congress today. Tell them to resist the corruption that the Blue Dog Democrats are trying to ram down America's throat and support HR 3609.
As I note in the column, this is yet another example of how the term "conservatism" has become a synonym for "corrruption" - in this case, to defend predatory lenders. Unfortunately, this kind of corruption is not limited just to the housing issue.
These same "conservative" Democrats are now gearing up to help protect the tax loopholes that let billionaire private equity players pay a lower effective tax rate than the janitors who clean their offices. This tax fight is going to be heating up over the next weeks and months - especially with my buddy Robert Greenwald's Brave New Films zeroing in on the issue with its new project at www.warongreed.org. Greenwald, who has rattled cages with his previous films on Fox News and Wal-Mart, will be releasing the first of his videos on Monday - you should go sign up to get on the campaign's email list for updates.
As you can see, these "conservative" Democrats have happily joined the Money Party's vicious campaign against the People Party. Their behavior explains a lot about how Congress really works. The only silver lining is that the more they sell out, the more the conservative label is shown for what it really is: a veneer for corruption.
Read the full column here. And if you'd like to see my column regularly in your local paper, use this directory to find the contact info for your local editorial page editors. Get get in touch with them and point them to my Creators Syndicate site.
Damn DLC.
"Business as Usual"
"Haven't met a corner of K-Street I didn't Love"
"You want Freedom Fries with That?"
"Never met a Lobbyist I didn't bend over for"
"I gots MY healthcare, what's wrong with YOU?"
"I'm ALL FOR Democratic principles, when you VOTE FOR ME....after elections - not so much, and "let's do lunch, CIAO!"
spearheaded by the mortgage biz going belly-up?
Black helicopters spewing forth UN shock troops
in black plastic hitler hats with little blue
emblems on em, cyber-bling dangling from their
armor? Death from the skies? Death from below
as Nature takes her revenge on the eco-infidels?
Death from within, as chinese cardboard infiltrates the food chain?
I think it's like this: All the people that've
been jerking off to their biz-porn are going
to have to detox there, put down the BusinessWeek, and get real. The day-trader
boiler rooms will have to disconnect and go
get some air...let's cash a reality check, here,
instead of the ones filched out of Granny's
mailbox...
We have snapped out of our enchantment with war now that the water has engulfed us. We are struggling for air, but many have been promised enormous wealth and power to hold us down. They will have their New World Order only with the genocide of the middle class. Republicans and Democrats__ they are all Santoriums and Liebermans__from the statehouse to the White House__ traitors that push us beneath the water, rejoice as we drown and the American Dream dies. Relax. Think of the flag being burned. Think of gays marrying. Think of sperm dying for lack of a womb. These visions will help us surrender our freedoms, our democracy; even our silly notions about our right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
The meek will inherit six feet of earth, and our children and their children and their children's children will beg for crumbs outside the houses of the lords forever.
The principle that allows mansion owners to be given favorable treatment in a number of legal proceedings is the definition of "homestead exemption" under individual state law, but I'm not aware of this being used to defeat foreclosure. The mortgage industry simply will not lend money on houses that are not available to be foreclosed upon in the event of default. Would you lend someone a million dollars, or even $100,000 in a situation that is basically a signature loan? Without real estate collateral that is what mortgages become.
This having been said, I know that bankruptcy law has some unique things, like "cram down" for example, and it's just not clear to me if forced mortgage contract reformation is a radical departure from routine prinicples or not.
Sadly none of this is addressed by the author.
Party labels are such good things to hide behind. People act from habit more than from thought. And habits are our way to avoid a lot of unnecessary thinking.