ELEPHANT CRUSH           

Over one million people lost their homes in forclosure proceedings in -in-2010.

Over one million people lost their homes in foreclosure proceedings in 2009.

Over one million people lost their homes in foreclosure proceedings in 2008.

But the good new is that it looks like only half that number lost their homes in foreclosure proceedings in 2007. What a country and what a year!

For the years 2009-2010, 3.5 to 4.5 million folks were at least 90 days late on their mortgage payments.

As of April of last year, 8.5 million people had lost their jobs since the recession began.

Millions more have lower take home pays due to lower salaries or shorter work weeks. (ibid)

Suicides are up since the recession began.

Food shelves are emptying at a faster rate since the beginning of the recession.

The middle class and the poor have lost equity during this recession. The top 1% now controls 13 trillion dollars and the bottom 80% controls 2 trillion dollars.

Even after you lose your home to foreclosure, the bank will sell the home for less than the mortgage (sometimes the difference may represent half the original mortgage plus attorney fees and court costs), you will find out at a later date that there is a deficiency judgment filed against you—even though the mortgage holder never had the proper documentation to prove that it even was the mortgage holder!

When you are in America and you lose, you keep losing even after you have hit bottom.

That is most of us:

Bank of America hasn’t paid a nickel in federal income taxes for the past two years, and in fact raked in an additional $1 billion in tax “benefits.” The bank is enjoying these profits after accepting $45 billion from taxpayers, which the company then got to count as a deduction when they paid back the money.

Big corporations get to play by a whole different set of rules, says tax expert Bob Willens of New York-based Robert Willens LLC:…

The rigged game has left citizens feeling burnt and angry. An activist named Sally says BoA’s practice of evicting people from their homes without the original mortgage notes is illegal, but that “illegal doesn’t seem to matter.”

You see, if you are already on top, the system is geared to keep you on top.

How far would legislation go in Congress proposing that all homeowners get new loans for their homes and as they pay those loans back, they get to deduct all payments made on those low interest loans?

And how would repubs handle these problems?

REPUBLICAN PLANS FOR REPAIRING OUR MORTGAGE SYSTEM!

House Republicans are scrutinizing a wide array of existing and proposed Obama administration regulations in areas as diverse as the environment and Wall Street, and they are taking guidance from industry groups that say the rules threaten jobs

The Business Roundtable, a coalition of chief executive officers from major corporations, voiced concern about a swath of requirements, including executive pay disclosures. http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2011/02/07-2

I mean how unfair can the gov’ment be for chrissakes? Actually making executives disclose how much pay they take from their shareholders? What the hell is this, Russia?

HOW WOULD REPUBLICANS ALLEVIATE THE PAIN OF THE HOMEOWNER?

Now that the mortgage mess settlement proposal has been made public, with its very basic demands that mortgage servicers follow the law and competently service mortgages, the push-back has begun. Cheynne Hopkins and Rob Blackwell of American Banker report on the first major effort by the banks’ allies to weaken the proposal.

I use “the banks” and “mortgage servicers” interchangeably because according to a list of the ten biggest mortgage servicers compiled by Reuters last fall, the top five are: 1. Bank of America (BAC), 2. Wells Fargo (WFC), 3. JPMorgan Chase Co (JPM), 4. Citigroup (C) and 5. GMAC/Ally Financial. Not coincidentally, those banks were Nos. 5 through 9 on the list of recipients of federal bailout money, according to Pro Publica, for a total of $160 billion of your tax dollars. It’s irrelevant that all but the $16 billion given to GMAC/Ally has been paid back. What matters is that when the big banks needed help, the taxpayers had their back.

So who are the banks’ allies? In the Senate, their leader is Richard Shelby (R-Ala.), who also lead the opposition to the creation of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. In the House of Representatives, the banks’ allies are the Republican leadership, including Financial Services Committee Chairman Spencer “Washington and the regulators are there to serve the banks” Bachus (R-Ala.), and Rep. Scott Garrett (R-N.J.).

Among Rep. Garrett’s largest campaign contributors recently and throughout his career have been Bank of America and the debt collector trade association ACA International. Incidentally, Garrett has taken large campaign contributions from a hedge fund — and now chairs the subcommittee overseeing hedge funds. Both Bachus and Garrett were also fierce opponents of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

Campaign cash aside, why do these people oppose forcing mortgage servicers to do things like “ensure accuracy and timely updating of borrower’s account information, including posting of payments and imposition of fees” and making sure that those fees are “bona fide, reasonable in amount, and disclosed in detail to the borrower”?

http://bankingmagazine.net/2011/03/12/decoding-the-gop-argument-against-punishing-banks-for-their-mortgage-crimes/

Follow the money is what I always say.

REPUBLICAN PROPOSALS FOR EASING THE LOSS OF INCOME FOR THE MIDDLE CLASS?

And what about salary levels for gov’ment employees who have not lost their jobs YET?

Representative Duffy would cut those salaries of public workers making forty grand a year because they do not deserve forty grand a year. You know, those unskilled gov’ment workers like teachers who only have one or two university degrees and ten years of experience?

But Doofus Duffy cannot even live on more than four times that amount.

When asked by TPM if he would support cutting his salary, Duffy's office responded by lashing out at the Democrats criticizing Duffy for saying he's "struggling" on $174,000 a year.

"Congressman Duffy is committed to working with his colleagues in the House to face these challenges head on, not score cheap political points," Duffy spokesperson Daniel Son told TPM on Tuesday.

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/03/cnn-accuses-tpm-of-selectively-editing-duffy-tape-video.php#more

And I have not even gotten into the issue of legislation all but outlawing public employee unions.

REPUBLICAN PROPOSALS FOR EASING THE UNEMPLOYMENT SITUATION

Well cut unemployment benefits, of course! http://www.wsws.org/articles/2011/mar2011/mich-m28.shtml

Cut spending by 61 billion dollars and one million people in the public and private sector lose their jobs. http://www.epi.org/analysis_and_opinion/entry/righting_the_fiscal_ship_the_wrong_way/

And if a million folks lose their jobs as a direct result of the republican’s actions?

SO BE IT! (youtube.com)

REPUBLICAN PROPOSALS TO EASE HUNGER IN AMERICA

Well they wish to cut back on the food stamp programs.  http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/25/opinion/25fri3.html

And if any member of a household is a union member (private or public) and on strike, the entire family cannot receive food stamps, period! http://dordems.org/p/salsa/web/news/public/?news_item_KEY=68

Well I have run too long again!

In conclusion:

Former Louisiana lieutenant governor candidate Caroline Fayard (D) is coming under fire for a recent speech where she compared Republicans to animals that eat their own young, the New Orleans Times-Picayune reports.

The Bogalusa Daily News reported that Fayard said: "I hate Republicans. I hate Republicans. They are cruel and destructive. They eat their young. They don't think. They don't allow people to think. They are bullies."  http://politicalwire.com/

Well, how about Caroline Fayard for President in 2016!!