Posted on 06/20/2008 5:14:47 PM PDT by SE Mom
National Review Online has obtained an internal Bank of America "discussion document" (pdf here) on the subject of the FHA Housing Stabilization and Homeownership Retention Act of 2008, a.k.a. the Dodd-Shelby mortgage-lender bailout bill.
Yesterday, Tim Carney reported that the prevailing sentiment on Capitol Hill is that the Dodd-Shelby bill "is exactly what Bank of America and Countrywide wanted." BofA is in the process of acquiring Countrywide. Countrywide is currently embroiled in a scandal over its V.I.P. program, under which several powerful politicians, including Sen. Chris Dodd, got preferential loan rates.
This discussion document (dated March 11, 2008) would appear to support the contention that BofA essentially wrote the bailout section of the bill. Almost all of BofA's preferences are mirrored in the Dodd-Shelby legislation. The BofA document even offers PR tips, such as "We believe that any intervention by the federal government will be acceptable only if it is not perceived as a bail-out of the bond market."
The president has threatened to veto Dodd-Shelby because it would "unfairly benefit lenders who made bad loans." The Senate will resume debating the bill on Monday.
The BofA doc is worth posting here for a couple of reasons: First, the similarities between BofA's ideal bill and the bill before the Senate are obvious even to the layperson — read the document, then read David C. John's analysis of the bailout and see for yourself.
Second, we'd invite our readers with some expertise in this area to look over the document for things we might have missed. Opponents of the bailout are lucky that a few tenacious Republicans (Kit Bond, DeMint et al) were able to hold up the bill and keep it from passing as quickly as expected. The fight resumes next week, so take a look at this document and keep digging.
~snip~ Second, we'd invite our readers with some expertise in this area to look over the document for things we might have missed ~snip~
PDF link referenced in the piece: http://www2.nationalreview.com/dest/2008/06/20/bofa.pdf
If the lenders take this “bailout” from the government, they should be required to use the government pay scale. No more huge CEO payouts when taking the government’s dime this shamelessly.
This could get ugly shortly..
<”This could get ugly shortly.”>
Good! Everyone knows that ugly goes all the way to the bones. In this case that means Congress.
So what did Shelby get from the mortgage brokers?
Orders and instructions?
Who knows with Shelby- but did you read the piece? Basically it looks as though BOA WROTE the damn bill....talk about brewing scandals.
I'm happy to see my Senator Kit Bond is one of the few tenacious Republicans.
This is corruption at its’ finest- plus the little tidbit they want to tuck into this bill that ALL credit card co’s report to the feds..
Brewing scandal, ping..
I haven’t read the bill itself yet. It doesn’t even appear that they are trying to hide the improprieties. ‘Above the law’ and all that...
I just can’t hold my head sidewise to read it.
Neither can I...I tried for a couple of mins- but I’m PDF handicapped- there must be a way to get it readable.
Dodd has been somewhat subdued on the Senate floor for the past few days although he worked himself up to yelling mode from time to time.
It’s pretty bad what is going on. I surely don’t know what to do about it. I was active in the term limits effort and we got some traction for a while. Then it faded.
They have become a criminal class that feels entitled to its criminality. They don’t believe for one minute that they derive their power from the people or are limited by the Constitution. THEY are the power and they will tell the American people how things will be.
We’re giving you “comprehensive immigration reform”, like it or not. Didn’t work, but they believed they were going to get away with it, Republicans and Democrats alike.
They want to set up a permanent funding for low income housing, one of the worst scams that ever was.
I really could go on and on with this, but I am getting to depressed.
Ask the folks here, there’s someone who will help.
Right click then click on ‘rotate’. Or if your on a laptop just hold it sideways. :)
Dodd==>Resign! If I were doing business at Country Wide, I’d be down there demanding my VIP treatment too.
Estimates from;
http://jphilipblog.wordpress.com/2008/06/19/chris-dodds-sweetheart-mortgages/
Dodd was not charged about $7500 for the Washington Townhouse, and perhaps paid $2-3000 less for his Connecticut home. That is roughly $10,000 which would have been rolled into the closing costs. He saved roughly $200 per month on his combined payments.
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