Senate's Foreclosure Prevention Act Forecloses on Families

DMIblog has the ugly details about a flawed piece of legislation that Tennessee Senators Lamar Alexander and Bob Corker will obviously vote for (or maybe not?). Why?

[I]n an effort to satisfy Senate conservatives, none of whom are particularly interested in helping out distressed homeowners, it's filled with unnecessary tax breaks and measures designed to serve the interests of homebuilders and, bizarrely enough, perhaps even speculators ....

And of course, it wouldn't be a real piece of patriotic American legislation without a nod to veterans. Fine, but quite a few civilians could use the 9 month stay on foreclosure proceedings too.

Perhaps most conspicuously absent is the bankruptcy reform that many progressives were advocating for, which would have given bankruptcy judges the ability to make mortgages more affordable, the way they already do with other kinds of debt.

Once again, in a crisis the U.S. Senate is going to come down on the side of the people who are hurting least in the housing industry. And as Republicans, the Senators of Tennessee can do no other. (By no means would I ever suggest that Democrat Harold Ford, Jr. would have opposed this bill if he had been in Bob Corker's place).