How they Voted: Helping Families Save Their Homes Act of 2009

by: Jason Springer

Thu Mar 05, 2009 at 07:43:24 PM EST

With the help of the New Jersey delegation, the party of no kept their streak in tact today opposing a bill that would help families stay in their homes by avoiding foreclosure:

Helping Families Save Their Homes Act of 2009
YES NO
Adler
Andrews
Holt
Pascrell
Payne
Rothman
Sires
Frelinghuysen
Garrett
Lance
LoBiondo
Smith

Democrats are in blue, and Republicans are in red.

The measure passed 234-191. There were seven Republicans in Congress who supported the bill, none from New Jersey. Here's a description of the intent of the bill they opposed today:

To prevent mortgage foreclosures and enhance mortgage credit availability.

Maybe they didn't see the post we promoted earlier this week:

Three New Jersey districts are in the top 50 district nationally for 2009 foreclosures: NJ-03 has the 13th most, NJ-01 the 14th most, and NJ-02 the 44th most. What's more, the 2009-2012 numbers project an even bleaker future. This mortgage relief bill is badly needed.
So the question arises: Will NJ Republicans vote for a mortgage relief bill to help thousands of families struggling in their districts? Or will they continue to kowtow to Rush Limbaugh and sell out their voters? Time will tell, but don't count me among the optimists.

So with his district ranked 44th in 2009 foreclosures, Frank "the moderate" LoBiondo turned his back and walked the party line. He was joined by Leonard Lance, Chris Smith, Rodney Frelinghuysen and of course Scott Garrett. Keep making New Jersey proud guys.

Jason Springer :: How they Voted: Helping Families Save Their Homes Act of 2009

Tags: Rodney Frelinghuysen, How they voted, Frank LoBiondo, Leonard Lance, Scott Garrett, Chris Smith, Rob Andrews, Rush Holt, John Adler, Frank Pallone, Bill Pascrell, Donald Payne, Steve Rothman, Albio Sires, mortgage, foreclosure, home, (All Tags)

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How they Voted: Helping Families Save Their Homes Act of 2009 | 3 comments

is it really fair for those of us... (0.00 / 0)

making our mortgage payments to bail out those who bought over their heads?! While i blame the banks for lending to less-than-worthy individuals, I don't want to clean up there mess. This isn't the America I know.

by: Reality Jax @ Fri Mar 06, 2009 at 05:23:03 AM UTC

Some information (0.00 / 0)

on who might qualify for assistance:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03...

Also, people from the NYT are goiing to answer some readers' questions.

http://questions.blogs.nytimes...

It doesn't look particularly easy to qualify, and many people won't.

Also, the mortgage crisis was not solely based on NINJA loans. Countrywide, as well as other lending groups and banks scammed a lot of homebuyers. Then they sold the mortgages to the likes of Goldman Sachs, who issued mortgage backed securities. And of course, AIG made huge profits selling credit default swaps.

Talk about irrational exuberance. Everyone thought the housing market would keep going up, including a lot of hapless homebuyers.

OK, not everyone. There's Krugman, Roubini, Steiglitz, Dean Baker and Jason somebody from MIT.

And why hasen't anyone taken out Greenspan, who was shocked, shocked I tell you that all of this happened. Oh yeah, he's married to Andrea Mitchell. A union that is too big to fail.

Frankly, I'm reserving my anger for Geitner, Bernanke and Summers, who should be removed faster than Michael Steele from the RNC.

And I have a special place in Hell for BoA, Citi, JP Morgan and Wells Fargo. I hope they die and get to that special place really soon.

But they won't. That's why they call them Zombie banks. I just read that a lot of CDO's and MBS's were bought by sovereign governments and foreign banks. As our banks go, so goes the world?

So, where would you rather see your taxpayer money go? To the wealthiest banks here and abroad or to schmuck homebuyers, many of whom are out in the street as we speak?

Yeah, I know, someone is going to say neither.

by: SmartyJones @ Fri Mar 06, 2009 at 15:03:58 PM UTC