The authority of the United States Department of the Treasury to establish and manage a Troubled Assets Relief Program managed by a newly created Office of Financial Stability became law October 3, 2008, the result of an initial proposal that ultimately was passed by Congress as H.R. 1424, enacting the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008.
The law which created the fund authorized the Treasury to draw up to $250 billion for immediate use, then requires the President to certify that an additional $100 billion in funds are needed; a final $350 billion are subject to Congressional approval.
The problem is all of this money is being sent directly to the big businesses and people who caused the current economic mess. You've heard people complain that "relief is being sent to Wall Street but Main Street is getting nothing."
What I propose is that much of the money set aside in the future should NOT be given directly to Wall Street but rather, sent to Main Street.
24 billion dollars could pay a year's worth of mortgages for a million homes alone, based on national mortgage averages.
240 billion dollars could pay for a year's worth of mortgages for ten million homes. Twice that would cover twenty million homes.
If home owners facing foreclosure, based on various sensible eligibility requirements, were given a year's vacation from fear of foreclosure, this would allow those that deserve the help to avoid foreclosure. The funds applied would flow up directly to the lenders, through home owners, rather than directly to the lenders. The home owners would be required to add a year on to their loan, so a 30 year loan would be become a 31 year loan and so forth.
This would give the mortgage/lender industry stability while helping save home owners during the financial crisis.
As credit remains tight, people who normally could refinance or otherwise borrow are finding that they cannot.
Congress people talk about helping "Main Street" but what help will come will be too little and too late.
Bailing out the companies that caused the economic mess is just wrong, unless the victims of big business corporate greed also have a chance to be bailed out.
Mortgages need to be rewritten so that borrowers can have acceptable interest rates. It's unfair for borrowers to receive one percent interest on their savings accounts while they pay 6 percent on their home loans.
While Congress tackles methods of saving the economy, emergency help has to issue to the common man struggling to pay for his mortgage (or woman, of course) in a economy that is quickly sinking....as we all struggle in the uncertain world of massive lay offs, rising prices and out of control mortgage lenders who win no matter what happens because Congress has not held them to be accountable.
The way things are set up now, people will be losing their homes, their jobs AND be facing huge taxes when they return to work. The future may be bleak if Congress fails to bail out the public rather than private interests.
Congress knows you are unhappy about this. It is your opportunity (and perhaps duty) to write your congress person and your senator and demand that Main Street get REAL RELIEF and SOON rather than the namby pamby help that will come sometime next year---help that will be so meaningless that few will benefit from it.
Raise your voice! Call your congress person! Write your congress person! Act while you still have a home.
Promote the "Underhill Mortgage Bailout Plan" now, by talking about it with your friends and neighbors and by contacting your congressperson/senator.
|
