Roundup

TPMDC Sunday Roundup

Eric Kleefeld | August 29, 2010, 1:29PM

Beck On His Obama-Is-A-Racist Comment 'I Have A Big Fat Mouth Sometimes'
Appearing on Fox News Sunday, Glenn Beck sought to correct his statement from a year ago, in which he said that President Obama had a "deep-seated hatred for white people." "I have a big fat mouth sometimes and I say things, and that's not the way people should behave," said Beck. He further explained: "I think that it is much more of a theological question that he is a guy who understands the world through liberation theology, which is oppressor and victim."

Joe Miller: Transfer Control Of Land Back To The States
Appearing on Face The Nation, Senate candidate Joe Miller (R-AK) said that the federal government should transfer control of lands to his state, in exchange for cutting federal subsidies. "The answer to this is to basically transfer the responsibilities and power of government back to the states and the people. That is really the only answer, I think, out of this crisis," said Miller, who may have defeated incumbent Sen. Lisa Murkowski in the GOP primary, depending on the final absentee ballot results. "As we continue to tighten our belts because fiscally that's critical for the economic solvency of this nation, we also transfer it to the states more power. That means more ownership of lands. It's not a situation where you just yank the financial plug, but at the same time you're transferring over discretion over the use of the resource base."

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Housing/Foreclosures

That Housing Bailout Plan Gets Filled In

Matthew Cooper | March 4, 2009, 1:42PM

The Treasury Department has released more details about that housing bailout plan. Still waiting for some of the Washington lobbies to weigh in on it. My colleague, Elana Schor, has interesting reporting on the fight over "cramdowns"--giving bankruptcy judges the power to rewrite mortgage terms. Would be curious to know if readers are hearing about other fights over the proposal. It feels like the Rick Santelli moment has not yet passed. This Wall Street Journal poll shows a lot of public doubt about the plan.

Democrats

House Dems Reach Deal on 'Cramdowns': The Details

Elana Schor | March 4, 2009, 11:04AM

House Democrats are now expected to take up their foreclosure-aid bill tomorrow,
after negotiators reached a deal to modify the "cramdown" provision that would allow bankruptcy judges to modify the mortgage terms on primary residences.

A summary of the changes can be viewed on the second page of this document, sent out by three California Dems who led the effort to change the bill: Zoe Lofgren, Ellen Tauscher, and Dennis Cardoza.

As I said yesterday, whether these changes constitute an unacceptable watering-down of the cramdown plan depends on one's ideological and personal perspectives. One of the alterations -- allowing lenders to "claw back" a greater portion of the profits if a home is sold during bankruptcy proceedings -- would do little more than benefit banks.

But the other changes being made -- particularly requiring lenders to offer a workable loan modification before a homeowner enters bankruptcy and ensuring that any modification offer is consistent with a homeowner's income -- can hardly be classified as giveaways.

Rep. Brad Miller (D-NC), one of the leading proponents of the cramdown plan, told the AP that the banking lobby is "giving it everything they've got" but that he backs the new changes:

It would encourage lenders to make modifications and there would be consequences if they don't do it,

Housing/Foreclosures

Bankruptcy Compromise Draws Clear Line Between New Dems & Blue Dogs

Elana Schor | March 3, 2009, 5:14PM

No group of congressional Democrats is better at getting under progressives' skin than the House Blue Dogs, the caucus of conservative Democrats that excels at grabbing headlines while watering down and delaying liberal priorities.

But the simmering debate over the so-called "cramdown" proposal, which would change the law to permit loan modifications on primary residences for homeowners declaring bankruptcy, has minted a new villain for many liberals: the New Democrat Coalition, a moderate group of free-traders that claimed White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel as one of their own until recently.

The progressive case against the New Dems predated the cramdown scuffle, but tempers flared last week when Speaker Nancy Pelosi agreed to delay consideration of a broad foreclosure-aid bill in order to modify the provision on mortgage-holders declaring bankruptcy.

Now, the cramdown plan is a no-brainer and a definite benefit to the nation's at-risk homeowners -- but were the New Dems really trying to kill it?

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Business Lobby

Banking Industry Asks for Leniency on 'Minor Violations' of Truth in Lending Act

Elana Schor | February 24, 2009, 3:30PM

The House is on the verge of taking up a mortgage aid proposal that would, for the first time, allow judges to modify the terms of primary mortgages for individuals facing bankruptcy -- a reform known as the "cram-down."

The bankruptcy law change is backed by the Obama administration as well as Citigroup (which is increasingly looking like a ward of the Obama administration). But the American Bankers Association, the Mortgage Bankers Association, and other K Street players are no fans of the cram-downs plan.

In a letter sent today to every House member, a group of financial lobbying giants urges Congress to reject the cram-downs bill. Lobbyists are especially concerned about language in the bill "provid[ing] that even minor violations of the Truth-in-Lending Act (TILA) could result in a home equity loan or even a mortgage being disallowed in bankruptcy."

You read that right: K Street is asking Congress to permit lenders to get away with minor violations of the TILA, a 40-year-old law that was passed to protect consumers from banks that hide punitive terms in the fine print of loans.

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Housing/Foreclosures

GOP Housing Feud Goes From Simmer to Boil

Elana Schor | February 23, 2009, 11:00AM

We told you last week about a growing note of discord between House and Senate Republicans' political message on mortgage aid. While House conservatives lambaste the Obama administration's $75 billion foreclosure plan as too pricey, their Senate counterparts are continuing to back a $121 billion-plus mortgage proposal from Columbia University professor and former Bush economic adviser Glenn Hubbard.

Now the intra-party tension over housing is becoming harder and harder to mask, as Roll Call reports (sub. req'd):

The [Senate GOP's] plan would potentially cover trillions of dollars of real estate and cost taxpayers up to $300 billion in subsidies. It's the sort of big-government spending plan that House Republicans have been railing against -- at least when they come from the lips of Democrats.

But House Republican leaders have avoided criticizing their more centrist Senate brethren, preferring to focus their fire on Democratic plans to bail out struggling homeowners instead, like Obama's $275 billion proposal announced last week to rework distressed mortgages to prevent foreclosures.

Business Lobby

Biz Group Takes a Shot at Geithner in Response to Mortgage Plan

Elana Schor | February 18, 2009, 5:19PM

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, one of Washington's biggest business lobbying groups, just released its response to the Obama administration's $75 billion mortgage aid plan.

As you'd expect, Chamber executive vice president Bruce Josten was skeptical of the aid plan, particularly the White House's support for letting bankruptcy judges modify the mortgage terms on primary residences (the so-called "cramdowns" bill). But Josten's response also included what sounds like a subtle jab at the treasury secretary in his statement, quipping that the mortgage aid proposal "should have undergone a stress test to determine if it's ready to stabilize a major portion of our economy."

A "stress test" to determine banks' solvency was a major component of Treasury chief Tim Geithner's widely panned speech last week, in which he provided vague details about how the administration would refine the enforcement of the $700 billion financial bailout.

Josten's full statement is after the jump.

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Bailout

Bailed-Out Banks 'Must Participate' in Obama Mortgage Aid Program

Elana Schor | February 18, 2009, 4:59PM

As President Obama rolls out his $75 billion aid program to stem the tide of foreclosures among cash-strapped Americans, one key point should be emphasized: Banks participating in the government's $700 billion financial bailout are required to help modify home loans, according to the administration.

"[W]e have guidance as part of [the Troubled Assets Relief Program] that anyone receiving TARP funding must participate in this program," Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan told reporters today.

It sounds like the Obama team has learned its lesson from the framework of the bailout, which offered injections of capital in the hopes that banks would be enticed to jump-start lending -- with predictably shoddy results, as banks have largely hung onto the government's cash.

But this enforced participation in mortgage modifications brings up another question ... why can't bailed-out banks be forced to abide by Congress' new executive compensation limits?

Republicans

GOP: $50B For Housing is Too Much; Try Our $121B Plan

Elana Schor | February 17, 2009, 2:35PM

House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-VA) -- who shares TPMDC's affinity for Aerosmith -- was at it again yesterday during an interview with CBS. Cantor strongly suggested that he would oppose President Obama's mortgage aid plan, slated for unveiling tomorrow. Cantor slammed the $50 billion price tag as too high:

We just cannot continue to pay for the kind of things that this administration thinks that we can. So, I'm very concerned about the direction I see us going ...

Hmm, maybe Cantor should bring this up with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell's (R-KY) GOP crew at their next bicameral mixer. The Senate Republicans have spent much of this month touting their alternative stimulus, which would have provided government subsidies for lower mortgage interest rates -- the same broad concept as Obama's plan -- at an initial cost of $121 billion.

Unless the minority wants its new talking point to be 'we voted for billions of dollars for mortgage aid before we voted against it.' At least that's better than lying about a salt marsh mouse.