You just know the Washington suits and Wall Street sharks are going to try to rip Obama into shreds for his effrontery. They’ll demand to know how the president could suggest that banks pay a fee to finance the restructuring of mortgages to lower interest rates, when just the restructuring alone is going to cost them money. Well, I understand that this interferes with these people’s notion that nothing should get in the way of their (apparently) G-d given right to endlessly make money on the backs of the 99%, but I’m awfully glad voices are emerging in America who stand up to these guys and tell them, “enough is enough.”
The Huffington Post points out
“About 11 million Americans – roughly 1 in 4 with mortgages – are underwater, according to CoreLogic, a real estate data firm. Half of all U.S. mortgages – about 30 million home loans – are owned by nongovernment lenders.
Despite historic low interest rates, however, banks have been reluctant to refinance loans of such “underwater” homeowners. Under Obama’s plan, an eligible homeowner would be able to refinance a loan through the FHA, which would guarantee the new loan, assuming the risk if the borrower should default. The fee on large banks that Obama is proposing would finance the FHA’s insurance fund.
The refinancing will cost 5-7 billion dollars, it’s true, but Elizabeth Warren points out that the Bush tax cuts for millionaires have saved the one percent trillions. How much more is a trillion than a billion? Well, you gotta add 3 more zeros to the right of 1,000,000,000,000 to get to a trillion so that makes a trillion 1000 times bigger than a billion. That’s a lot! These guys have nothing to whine about, but of course they will. That’s what fat cats do.
Here’s Warren making her famous statement about how successful businessmen didn’t get there alone. She’s glorious.
“I hear all this, you know, ‘Well, this is class warfare, this is whatever. No. There is nobody in this country who got rich on his own — nobody.
“You built a factory out there? Good for you. But I want to be clear. You moved your goods to market on the roads the rest of us paid for. You hired workers the rest of us paid to educate. You were safe in your factory because of police-forces and fire-forces that the rest of us paid for. You didn’t have to worry that marauding bands would come and seize everything at your factory — and hire someone to protect against this — because of the work the rest of us did.
“Now look, you built a factory and it turned into something terrific, or a great idea. God bless — keep a big hunk of it. But part of the underlying social contract is, you take a hunk of that and pay forward for the next kid who comes along.”