Posted on 04/04/2008 5:55:02 AM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin
Washington - Republicans and business-friendly Democrats on Thursday scuttled a plan to give people threatened with losing their homes more leverage in winning favorable loan terms from their lenders in bankruptcy courts.
The Senate killed the bankruptcy plan by a 58-36 vote on the first full day of debate on a bill designed to boost the slumping housing market.
The Democratic-backed bankruptcy law changes, opposed by banks and their GOP allies and a handful of Democrats, would have given judges the power to cut interest rates and principal on troubled mortgages to help desperate borrowers trapped in subprime mortgages keep their homes. Wisconsin Sens. Russ Feingold and Herb Kohl, both Democrats, voted against killing the plan.
The idea was to give borrowers duped into abusive mortgages leverage in getting their loan terms adjusted. Such power, said the plan's chief proponent, Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), would have helped "more people than all of the provisions combined" in the rest the bill.
But Republicans and 10 Democrats, along with Connecticut independent Joe Lieberman, voted to scuttle the bankruptcy provision. Opponents argued that despite modifications by Durbin, the proposal would hurt more than it would have helped by leading mortgage lenders to ratchet up interest rates and thereby put another drag on the soft housing market.
The defeat of the bankruptcy plan highlighted a weakness that many people find with the bill - that it showers generous tax breaks on money-losing businesses such as home builders but does little to help people facing foreclosure.
The measure is advertised as helping people keep their homes and injecting demand into the teetering housing market. But its most costly provision simply gives tax cuts worth $25 billion over the next few years to businesses such as home builders and banks.
Meanwhile, it provides just $3 billion in tax relief to homeowners over the same period, according to an estimate by the Joint Tax Committee, which explores for lawmakers the effects of tax legislation on the Treasury.
The benefits to businesses also dwarf the $4 billion in the measure that would be provided to cities and towns to buy and refurbish foreclosed and abandoned homes. That provision is aimed at stabilizing communities and preserving values of neighboring homes.
Also on Capitol Hill, a study by a nonpartisan research group said that as of 2006, 151 members of Congress had as much as $196 million collectively invested in companies doing business with the Defense Department, earning millions since the onset of the Iraq war.
The review of lawmakers' 2006 financial disclosure statements by the Washington-based Center for Responsive Politics suggests that members' holdings could pose a conflict of interest as they decide the fate of Iraq war spending.
Several members earning money from these contractors had plum committee or leadership assignments, including Lieberman, Democratic Sen. John Kerry and House Republican Whip Roy Blunt.
Of course, why they tacked on the "Iraq = Money for CongressCritters" info is beyond me. Oh, wait. It's the AP, LOL!
“Republicans and business-friendly Democrats”
LOL! No bias here.
Given the caliber of some judges nowadays I wouldn't trust them to walk my dog much less monkey with the principal and interest on a bad mortgage.
I keep forgetting, who exactly was it holding a gun to the heads of these borrowers?
“duped into abusive mortgages” ... again, we’re too stupid to take care of ourselves so the Democrats want the government to take care of us?? Egad. Disclaimer: I have a 4.75% 15 year fixed. Sitting pretty! :-)
I have an “abusive mortgage”.........If I don’t pay it every month, they come and kick me outta my house!................
Yeah, Bush stated that he wanted to see low income earners to be home owners, and the dims jumped on this. Congress forced mortgage companies and lenders to give loans to deadbeats and illegals, who are the very people who aren't known for paying their bills and who otherwise wouldn't qualify.
No bias in this article. Nope. None whatsoever. Fair and balanced all the way.
Yea and if the banks didn’t give them the loans they would have been fined big time.
I think we should give individuals the same ability to write off losses as we do businesses. Why discriminate ?
How about if you lose money on your home, you can deduct it against prior years’ taxes, just like they’re proposing to allow the homebuilders to do ?
After all, don’t so many people say a home is an investment ?
Wouldn’t that be fair ?
“Yeah, Bush stated that he wanted to see low income earners to be home owners, and the dims jumped on this. Congress forced mortgage companies and lenders to give loans to deadbeats and illegals, who are the very people who aren’t known for paying their bills and who otherwise wouldn’t qualify.”
Bingo
The other problem is people’s inane desire to buy the most expensive house they can afford. They forget that they are going to spend $5-20,000 furnishing that new home too.
When did American’s all become victims?
Thanks for the bold. Makes you really see how biased an AP article can be.
I agree...duped, what a choice of words. Reminds me of Monty Python.
DENNIS: Oh! Come and see the violence inherent in the system! Help! Help! I’m being repressed!
ARTHUR: Bloody peasant!
DENNIS: Oh, what a give-away. Did you hear that? Did you hear that, eh? That’s what I’m on about. Did you see him repressing me? You saw it, didn’t you?
Would this “I was Duped” arguement work with my credit cards and auto loan?
When "THE MAN" added "WHITEY" to the exploited class. LOL
With a friendly judge, yeah.
There was a surge in getting fixed rates a few years back...The time passed.
AND people starting using the equity in their homes....because it was deductible...aand that had to be paid off first. Let's just say they lived "recklessly" because they had that very low adjustable.
again, we’re too stupid to take care of ourselves so the Democrats want the government to take care of us??
Boy did Rush explain this in one of his shows this week?/ and he was as usual, “right on”. STOP expecting the government to fix all our problems!!/ are they will soon run every aspect of our lives, close to that now, by the way!
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