The response is pretty much exactly the reason for Occupy Wall Street - the failure of the Democratic Party - the one that controls the White House to take the pain of the broken economy seriously.
Congressional Democrats met with Obama's housing chief Edward DeMarco last week to demand stronger action on the travesty of underwater homes in California. His response was "tepid and defensive," according to Rep. Anna Eshoo of Palo Alto.
The Dems want to see homeowners able to refinance at today's low interest rates rather than the high rates they originally financed at. That would mean less profits for banks but a huge benefit to the economy at large as hundreds of dollars a month move from mortgage payments to groceries, gas dining and entertainment.
And isn't it possible that many more people paying their mortgages instead of defaulting will be better for the banks than foreclosing?
Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren of San Jose says it won't cost the taxpayers anything. Banks, she says, are another story. "The banks are going to eat a loss eventually," she says. "The question is when." Lofgren says the banking industry's financial hit "has been deferred to the detriment of the American public."
