[Marxism] NYT: Homeowners' Pleas Put G.O.P. Lawmakers in Bind on Defaults

[Walter Lippmann]

("He says a lot of about foreign policy, mainly toward Cuba, which makes no
difference here," said David Carbonell, a former computer programmer and gas
station manager now on disability with a heart ailment. "You have people
living here at the edge of poverty and he has done nothing to bring anything
back to Hialeah or Miami Lakes. He is a party hack. He will vote the way his
party votes."

("The rising anger at Washington is not something Mr. Diaz-Balart is
accustomed to because he has long shared the strong anti-Castro sentiments
of his heavily Cuban-American district and is part of a political dynasty.
His late father, Rafael, was a well-known politician and Castro opponent in
Cuba, and his brother, Mario, represents a neighboring district in
Congress.")

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COMMENTS: You will want to read this article all the way through because it
helps explain why the three rightist exile militant politicians in Miami
today face the most serious challenges they've had to their continued place
on the political scene. Here's where the interests of the Cuban exile
militants and the needs of ordinary people, from the crises in housing
foreclosures through the simple inability of ordinary people to visit and
help out their family members who continue to live in the countries where
they were born come together. In previous years, opposition to the
Diaz-Balarts have come from marginal figures, but now they're coming from
more formidable sections of the Cuban-American political establishment, such
as Joe Garcia and Raul Martinez.

The news that rightist exile militants have been caught with their snouts
in the "free Cuba" trough can only add to the sweat which the rightist
militants are now starting to feel. Cuba may seem like a foreign-policy
issue to some, and nothing more than that, but when we get the confluence of
domestic and foreign policy areas, as this indicates, we could see a few
surprises in the next several months. It's a long time between now and
November. Those Cubans who came to the United States in search of a better
material life have had more than a few successes. Of course, they've also
had lots of help from the Federal government over the past half-century.

So if even THEIR their world is starting to show signs of decay and
disarray, there may very well be important electoral consequences here.
Yes, as the saying goes, we are living in interesting times.


Walter Lippmann


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THE NEW YORK TIMES
March 30, 2008
Homeowners' Pleas Put G.O.P. Lawmakers in Bind on Defaults
By DAVID M. HERSZENHORN

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/30/washington/30bailout.html

HIALEAH, Fla. - In Los Portales, a pink and terra cotta condominium complex
in this city of hard-striving Hispanic immigrants and often harder luck,
many of Juan Carpio's neighbors are losing their homes.

To the right of his ground-floor unit, two apartments are in the early
stages of foreclosure. Across the street, a three-bedroom unit has been
seized by a bank. To the left, another one is up for auction.

"The government should help," said Mr. Carpio, 57, a former truck driver
whose wife is a security guard. "Somebody ought to do something."

In Mr. Carpio's view, that somebody could be Representative Lincoln
Diaz-Balart, an eight-term Republican who represents Hialeah and whose
district slices through Miami-Dade into Broward, two counties in the top 10
of foreclosures nationwide.

But as Congress returns from a two-week recess on Monday for a furious
debate over whether to help homeowners on the brink of default, Mr.
Diaz-Balart is caught in a crunch of his own.

On one side, Democrats emboldened by the Federal Reserve's intervention in
the collapse of Bear Stearns are demanding help for "everyday Americans."
On the other, Republicans including Senator John McCain, the party's
presumptive nominee, are urging restraint, reluctant to commit taxpayer
funds to what they say is simply a bailout for greedy lenders and reckless
buyers.

It is a bind shared by other Republicans, especially from high-foreclosure
states like Arizona, California, Michigan, Nevada and Ohio. The Democratic
Congressional Campaign Committee has a list of 18 districts where it plans
to highlight high foreclosure rates in its effort to oust Republican
incumbents this year.

So Mr. Diaz-Balart is treading carefully even as some of his constituents
angrily insist that he should be leading the charge for help on Capitol
Hill. He says he is open to some of the Democrats' ideas but has not decided
how he will vote on a proposed $300 billion loan guarantee program to
prevent foreclosures and an array of other housing initiatives expected on
the House floor in the next few weeks.

"I haven't studied this sufficiently to commit right now," Mr. Diaz-Balart
said in an interview outside Epworth Village, a retirement community where
he spoke to constituents about how to get their payments from the economic
stimulus plan approved by Congress last month.

"It's a very serious problem, and I am not dogmatic," he said. "I am not
going to say there cannot be state intervention in a dogmatic way."

For constituents like Mr. Carpio, that is not enough. "I'm very lukewarm
about him nowadays," said Mr. Carpio, who like his congressman is a lifelong
Republican of Cuban heritage.

Others were less subtle. "He says a lot of about foreign policy, mainly
toward Cuba, which makes no difference here," said David Carbonell, a former
computer programmer and gas station manager now on disability with a heart
ailment. "You have people living here at the edge of poverty and he has done
nothing to bring anything back to Hialeah or Miami Lakes. He is a party
hack. He will vote the way his party votes."

The rising anger at Washington is not something Mr. Diaz-Balart is
accustomed to because he has long shared the strong anti-Castro sentiments
of his heavily Cuban-American district and is part of a political dynasty.
His late father, Rafael, was a well-known politician and Castro opponent in
Cuba, and his brother, Mario, represents a neighboring district in Congress.

And to be sure, Mr. Diaz-Balart remains immensely popular among many
residents of his district. A warm and gregarious politician, he switches
effortlessly between Spanish - "Que placer a verlo" - and perfect,
unaccented English - "Great to see you" - all the while doling out kisses,
clasping his constituents by the hand or draping an arm around their
shoulders to be sure his affection is understood.

He said that in addition to addressing the foreclosure problems, he was
trying to help low-income constituents struggling to pay rent. "Much of the
community I represent is of very limited economic resources, so you have
then a lot of renters," he said. "I would say the major housing problem here
is insufficient accessible housing."

But with Democrats seeing the housing issue as a powerful election-year
weapon, it is unclear how flexible they will be about debating affordable
housing ideas or other Republican counterproposals. In recent days, the
Democrats have leveled a barrage of criticism at President Bush and Mr.
McCain for not offering more help.

With Henry M. Paulson Jr., the secretary of the treasury, planning to unveil
a package of regulatory reforms on Monday, almost all requiring the approval
of Congress, Democrats are certain to insist that helping individual
homeowners remains their most immediate priority.

Even word that the Bush administration was moving closer to its own plan to
help homeowners facing foreclosure seemed unlikely to forestall the looming
battles on Capitol Hill. The White House plan would encourage lenders to
refinance failing loans and would extend federal guarantees for new loans
without new legislation. But Democrats say they will push for more.

In a sign of the increasing pressure that lawmakers are feeling after two
weeks at home, some Senate Republicans say they are ready to deal.

"The two things you hear most about from people are the price of gasoline
and the housing problem," said Senator Johnny Isakson, Republican of
Georgia. "I don't think we could get away with not addressing it
forthrightly, and hopefully we will."

Senate Democrats, hoping to leverage their argument that average Americans
deserve just as much help as Wall Street, on Tuesday will bring back to the
floor housing legislation that the Republicans blocked on Feb. 28.

That bill includes a change in bankruptcy laws to allow judges to modify
interest rates and other mortgage terms for primary homes, a provision that
the White House and Senate Republicans have denounced. It would also provide
$200 million for counseling struggling homeowners; authorize $10 billion in
bonds to refinance bad loans; and give local governments $4 billion to buy
foreclosed properties.

In the House, Democrats plan to push Republicans for quick action to create
a $300 billion loan guarantee program. Representative Barney Frank, Democrat
of Massachusetts, who is sponsoring the bill, said that a failure by
Republicans to sufficiently regulate lenders had allowed problems in the
mortgage market to hold the larger economy hostage. "At this point it's some
government versus no government," he said, adding: "In effect we have to pay
a ransom. It's not fun to have to pay a ransom."

Senator Christopher J. Dodd, Democrat of Connecticut, has sponsored a
similar measure. While the debate on Capitol Hill is often for political
advantage, in Hialeah and other hard-hit towns around the country the debate
is about how to afford groceries and gasoline and still cover mortgage
payments, amid declining property values and a slowing economy.

In the Los Portales condominium complex a pink notice left on one apartment
door urged the owner to call Eastern Financial, a lender. Neighbors said the
apartment had been abandoned. Isabel Hernandez, a member of the condominium
board, said all of its homeowners were being hurt because many residents
could no longer afford monthly maintenance fees.

Her neighbor, Mr. Carpio, is no stranger to financial trouble and said the
government needed to offer a helping hand. Unemployed in 2002, he and his
wife filed for bankruptcy and lost a home. Last year, they refinanced the
$103,000 loan on their apartment in Los Portales.

"We were this close," he said, pinching his fingers, together. Then, running
a finger across his chin, he added, "We were right up to here."

North of Hialeah, in the wealthier neighborhoods of Palm Springs North and
Miami Lakes, dozens of large single family homes are in various stages of
foreclosure.

One Spanish Colonial, which sold for $610,000 in February 2006, had a sign
out front announcing it would soon be up for auction. Opening bid: $50,000.
Another house up for auction had sold in August 2003 for $220,000, and again
in February 2007 for $465,000.

Still, if a visit in and around Mr. Diaz-Balart's district illustrates how
deeply the mortgage pain is being felt, it also underscores how difficult it
will be to legislate solutions.

The Miami area, with its appeal to investors in vacation homes, is far
different than Detroit or Cleveland, where long-declining prices have
stabilized, which in turn are far different than recent boom towns like
Phoenix or Las Vegas.

Dean Baker, co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, a
liberal group, warned that the proposed loan guarantee programs could prove
disastrous in areas like Phoenix, where home prices are still falling and
could lead to more defaults.

And in Hialeah, William Negron, a broker specialized in short sales of
foreclosed properties, said that just reducing mortgage balances often is
not enough to help homeowners also squeezed by high property taxes and
rising insurance costs.

Mr. Bush and Mr. McCain offer similar reasons in warning against too much
government intervention and say the administration has already taken prudent
steps, by giving more flexibility to the Federal Housing Administration,
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

But if the legislation is complicated, for Democrats the political message
seems clear: no help for the little guy. "You are on your own," said
Representative Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, chairman of the Democratic
Congressional Campaign Committee. "Unless you are a big financial firm on
Wall Street, in which case we'll work around the clock all weekend to help
you out."

Raul Martinez, a former mayor of Hialeah who is running against Mr.
Diaz-Balart, said he planned to point out repeatedly that his opponent was
slow to help homeowners in crisis.

"People are so concerned about taking care of themselves they might not call
anybody," Mr. Martinez said. "You may not want to let the world know you are
losing the house. We have a lot of proud people in our community." As for
Mr. Diaz-Balart, he said, "If I was him, I wouldn't be waiting. I would be
out there leading."
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WALTER LIPPMANN, CubaNews
Los Angeles, California
http://www.walterlippmann.com
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CubaNews/
"Cuba - Un Paraiso bajo el bloqueo"
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