Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner and federal regulators need to fix the mortgage foreclosure process so that it doesn’t derail the economic recovery, Senator Jack Reed and 16 other senators wrote in a letter yesterday.
“Mortgage market issues point to an emerging threat to financial stability that should be forcefully addressed now,” wrote Reed, a Democrat from Rhode Island. The letter, obtained by Bloomberg News, was also signed by Senator Bernie Sanders, an independent of Vermont, and 15 other Democrats including Senators John Kerry and Dick Durbin.
The letter shows increasing concern from lawmakers that the Obama administration hasn’t done enough to stem the housing crisis. Home prices may decline 5 percent this year as the housing market starts to stabilize, Jan Hatzius, chief U.S. economist at Goldman Sachs, said in a Dec. 31 Bloomberg Television interview.
The Huffington Post | Nick Wing First Posted: 12-10-10 02:55 PM | Updated: 12-10-10 07:10 PM
UPDATE:The filibuster ended just shy of 7:00 PM ET, after 8 hours and 37 minutes of speaking.
…
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) is leading a stalling session resembling a filibuster against Obama’s tax proposal on the Senate floor Friday, after earlier promising “to take as long as I can to explain to the American people the fact that we have got to do a lot better than this agreement provides.”
As First Read notes, however, the event is not an actual filibuster under the traditional definition: “If it were a true filibuster, he would be blocking Republicans from conducting business or speaking.”
The near-filibuster, which began at 10:25 AM, became so popular that it temporarily shut down the Senate video server.
Sanders kicked off the debate on the bill with a two-hour stand in opposition to the tax cut deal before handing over the lectern to Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) and then Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.).
“How can I get by on one house?” Sanders said. “I need five houses, ten houses! I need three jet planes to take me all over the world! Sorry, American people. We’ve got the money, we’ve got the power, we’ve got the lobbyists here and on Wall Street. Tough luck. That’s the world, get used to it. Rich get richer. Middle class shrinks.”
Recent Comments