It is amazing how the vast corruption and complicity of the Democratic Party "leadership" OBSCURES THE OBVIOUS: that any plan to address America's current and vast HOMEOWNER FORECLOSURE CRISIS should... gasp! - target those COMMUNITIES WITH THE HIGHEST FORECLOSURE RATES, and do what is necessary to help homeowners stave off foreclosures!
Of course, with the "fish rots from the head" corruption institutionalized and perfected by the Bush-Cheney administration, EVERYTHING in American politics, governance, and economics is designed to BENEFIT THE WAR PROFITEERS and CONNECTED CRONIES, from the post-9-11 airline bailout which benefitted ONLY AIRLINE EXECUTIVES, to the Hurricane Katrina disaster which was a huge boon to connected crony contractors, to the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, which are DISASTERS for thousands of American servicemen and millions of Iraqi and Afghan locals.. so to will the Bush-Cheney administration AND PELOSI, REID, and HOYER "Democrats" TURN THE MORTGAGE FORECLOSURE CRISIS into a MULTI-BILLION DOLLAR taxpayer financed GOLDEN PARACHUTE BAILOUT for financial and loan industry executives.
====================================================
WE need a plan that is big enough, bold enough and fair enough to deal with the nation’s foreclosure crisis.
By DENNIS J. KUCINICH
Published: March 2, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/02/opinion/02kucinich.html
For starters, federal aid should be directed toward those communities with the heaviest concentrations of foreclosures and homeowners at risk. Aid should help cover public safety costs imposed by vacant homes. It should help defray budgetary shortfalls for public schools that lose property tax revenue.
Second, a federal loan modification program for struggling homeowners should prohibit the replacement loan’s principal balance from exceeding the property’s appraised value. It should convert the terms to a long-term, fixed-rate and fully amortizing loan. It should limit monthly mortgage payments, including taxes and insurance, to an amount based on the homeowner’s ability to repay.
Third, for those homeowners who do not have the income to qualify for new financing, a federally financed land bank should buy the property from the lender at a steep discount and rent it to the former homeowner.
And most important, the cost of the loan modifications must be borne by the lenders or, if the loans have been packaged into securities, the investors, who were in the best position to profit from and prevent the crisis. This would provide marketplace stability and be preferable to the loss incurred by the lender at foreclosure.
The foreclosure crisis is a calamity for individual homeowners and a worry to financial markets. And what’s worse, if lenders and investors are allowed to profit from their predatory lending without bearing the full costs, they’ll do it again.
Dennis J. Kucinich is a Democratic representative from Ohio.
More Articles in Opinion »
