The banks “own the place.” What place? Congress. Who would say such a shocking thing? Someone relatively trustworthy: Dick Durbin. Consider this from Huffpo:
Only 45 Senate Democrats voted Thursday to oppose the banking industry and pass legislation aimed at stemming foreclosures. The bill would have allowed bankruptcy judges to allow homeowners who met strict conditions to renegotiate mortgages — a process known as cramdown. It would have only applied to mortgages entered into before 2009.
Earlier in the week, the measure’s lead proponent, Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), concluded that banks “frankly own the place.”
More specifically, MBNA owns the place.
My response is straight out of Wikipedia (updated by the hour, though it may be): "Biden was a sponsor of bankruptcy legislation during the 2000s, which was sought by MBNA, one of Delaware's largest companies, and other credit card issuers…the overall bill was vetoed by Bill Clinton in 2000 but then finally passed as the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act in 2005, with Biden supporting."
Not incidentally, Biden's bankruptcy legislation made it more difficult than ever for struggling debtors to save the car they use to get to work or the roof over their heads. The crippled Bankruptcy Act is but a shadow of its pre-Biden consumer protective-self.
For 2005 (read: pre-VP) coverage, see the Daily Kos: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/3/6/63144/0601…
or Debra Saunders' article: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/…
I agree with the Saunders article.
I also agree with this Saunders article.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/…
Maybe I'll look into more of what she has written in the past month or two.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/search/columnists.c…
I do not disagree that Biden, as a Senator, was unduly influenced by the largest businesses in Delaware. I challenge you to name a Senator of more than a single term immune from such influence.
The issue is not Biden alone. the issue is the undue influence that power brokers hold over our supposedly democratic institutions. I will be very happy if Obama can sustain one particular campaign promise – to reduce the influence of lobbyists and special interests in congress and senate.
Somewhat off topic, but apposite to the above comments, maybe this will provide some insight into Ms Saunders for those disinterested in clicking through to the SF Chronicle:
Let's drop the assumption waterboarding doesn't work: where she insists that it does work, and takes the Obama administration to task for saying otherwise – despite every actual agency with knowledge of interrogation stating that it doesn't.
Newspapers leaning to the left until bitter end: obviously she lives in a different country to me – almost every print publication, is at best centrist, and is generally far more right wing that almost anything you'd find in the rest of the world. Again, commentary from a republican that is evidence free. (Why am I unsurprised that Karl agrees with her on this one?)
These are only from the past 90 days. I'm sure looking farther back I'll see more examples of 'republican talking points' journalism at it's best.
Karl – I'll share a link to a piece by Glenn Greenwald, (whom I'm pretty sure you abhor and will therefore not read) but which demonstrates the depths to which the right have sunk in the years since Reagan.
Ronald Reagan: vengeful, score-settling, Hard Left ideologue
His piece also demonstrates the value of the internet – he actually links to sources and other commentary. This is something the right seem to find extremely challenging – perhaps it's hard to insert URLs into your prose, when writing longhand with a quill and ink.
How's the Obama foreclosure crisis program working? Terribly. The banks are fighting loan modification tooth and nail:
Once again, we see that the banks run our government.
http://www.boston.com/business/articles/2009/07/0…