Jackson County Democrats

by Christine Bowman  Article From

Bail out the bankers, but not homeowners? See how it went down in the Senate despite Dick Durbin's considerable fight. -- "And the banks ... they frankly own the place."

IL Democratic Senator and Majority Whip Richard Durbin minced no words but expressed major frustration this week as the banking lobby, 12 weak-kneed or complicit Democratic senators, and the entire GOP bloc in the Senate said "no" to offering options to help financially distressed American homeowners keep the roofs over their heads. Durbin was sponsor of an amendment derisively characterized as "cramdown" by mortgage bankers who fought against it ferociously and effectively.

Real News Network offers this maddening glimpse into the lobbying behemoth that killed the measure:

The Durbin amendment would have allowed bankruptcy judges to renegotiate mortgage terms on primary residences and thereby prevent home foreclosures for an estimated 1.7 million families. The same measure had "sailed through the House in March," the LA Times reported.

As Durbin had said in a radio interview with WJJG Monday:

This week I'm going to go into battle with the banks over this foreclosure crisis. ... Folks are helpless. ... We're going to fight this week on foreclosures, and then next week it's gong to be on credit cards. And the banks -- hard to believe in a time when we're facing a banking crisis that many of the banks created -- are still the most powerful lobby on Capitol Hill. And they frankly own the place. ... We're going to fight this battle ... I think it's worth a fight to give the consumers in this country a chance.

In a statement after the amendment's defeat Thursday, Durbin promised not to give up the fight:

We've given the bankers who got us into this crisis every opportunity to responsibly address this crisis and they have failed. I'll keep working to give homeowners every legal means to save their homes.

On MSNBC, Durbin had warned that one in six homeowners could lose their homes if mortgage banks are not forced to come to the table on loan renegotiation.

Progress Illinois has strong praise for Durbin as a consumer champion:

So far this session, Sen. Dick Durbin has stood behind consumers like no other public official in Washington.  He has served as the Senate Democrats' de facto point man on student aid reform, mortgage bankruptcy reform, usury reform, financial product safety, and consumer credit abuse. And around every corner, he's been met with resistance by banking industry lobbyists.

The credit card reform legislation that is the next fight appears likelier to win Senate approval and seems to have stronger Obama Administration backing. Progess Illinois, however, notes that lobbying by banking interests may have already rendered it "rather meaningless" by pushing its effective timeline out to July, 2010.

Voting with the banking lobby and against the foreclosure prevention amendment were: