Twitter
StumbleUpon
Facebook
Delicious
Digg
Newsvine
Google
Yahoo
TechnoratiThe Plague of Potomac Fever
If any publication was going to document the sickness known as Potomac Fever, it was going to be the Washington Post.
Last month, the newspaper penned a front-page dispatch headlined "Housing Accord Puts Builders First; Strapped Homeowners Offered Little Aid." It described congressional leaders agreeing to "provide billions of dollars in tax rebates to the slumping home-building industry while offering little to homeowners threatened with foreclosure." The bill proposes $6 billion in corporate tax cuts, while "families who cannot afford to repay their home loans -- the group at the heart of the mortgage meltdown" would get less than 2 percent of that for "counseling services."
Next to this story was a report labeled "Sweeping Bills Passed to Help Homeowners." It told of Maryland state lawmakers "toughening oversight of the mortgage-lending industry and establishing preemptive measures to help people at risk of foreclosure."
The newspaper page was a scientific proof, with states as the control. They show what minimally healthy democratic systems do: help ordinary people. That's different from a Congress ravaged by Potomac Fever-the disease inside the Washington Beltway inhibiting emotions like compassion and integrity. As the housing crisis intensifies, this malady is getting worse.
For example, states like Oregon are cracking down on predatory lenders, while North Carolina and Minnesota are the latest to regulate abusive mortgage fees. Yet, Congress-debilitated by the fever-does nothing to halt banks' usurious practices that originally created the mortgage meltdown.
State legislators are demanding aid to borrowers. Delegate Dereck Davis, D-Md., told the Washington Post that homeowners "need a federal bailout from Congress."
But in the land of Potomac Fever, bailouts are for financial firms. Congressman Barney Frank, D-Mass., in fact, told newspapers "it's irrelevant" how many homeowners-if any-are ever helped. According to The Hill newspaper, he is pushing industry-backed legislation that would federally guarantee banks' outstanding mortgages for modest write-downs. The proposal deliberately avoids forcing banks to freeze interest rates.
Because the plan is voluntary, lenders "will just dump their worst loans into the system," says economist Dean Baker. The Congressional Budget Office adds that the proposal focuses not on rescuing homeowners, but on "shift[ing] the risk involved in mortgage losses from the current lenders and investors to taxpayers."
Such virulent strains of Potomac Fever have many causes. One is the proximity of lawmakers to constituents. Many state representatives serve part time and are not career politicians, meaning they have authentic connections to local communities and therefore often better reflect public priorities. By contrast, professional lawmakers in Washington are insulated from real-world pressures by six-figure salaries, security sentries and servile staffers.
Campaign contributions are also a culprit. Though industries certainly influence state legislators, Big Money has a tougher time controlling 50 separate state capitals than one U.S. Capitol. And, boy, is the money flowing in D.C. Reporting on the housing crisis, Politico.com says "campaign donations from affected industries have spiked [and] lobbyists also are making money off the misery." Banks pleading poverty somehow have plenty of resources to buy influence.
Finally, there is the filibuster -- a tool that does not exist in state legislatures. Coupled with the U.S. Senate's undemocratic structure giving Delaware as many votes as California, the filibuster allows 41 politicians representing just 11 percent of America's total population to stop almost anything. Corporate lobbyists and their Senate allies have used the filibuster to obstruct legislation representing the public's economic interests.
Can Potomac Fever be stopped? Maybe not, considering most inside the Beltway are so afflicted they have lost the capacity to even see it. Then again, the more bold actions states take, the more ill Washington will look. Perhaps the embarrassing contrast can cure the plague.
David Sirota is the bestselling author of "Hostile Takeover" (Crown, 2006). He is a senior fellow at the Campaign for America's Future and a board member of the Progressive States Network -- both nonpartisan research organizations. His daily blog can be found at www.credoaction.com/sirota.
© 2008 CREATORS SYNDICATE, INC.
14 Comments so far
Show AllI don't think congress should help any of them. As far as I am concerned these people who got those subprime mortage loans were every bit as greedy as the ones who made the loans, they went out and a bought they should have know they could not afford in the first place but justified doing it because the bank would give them a loan. Just because are to stupid and distracted by garbage like american idol and the orther rubbish on television, doesn't absolve them from not doing their homework on what they were getting themselves into, secondly why reward these idiots who continue to flee the cities for the suburbs and continue to waste countless amounts of engery on transporation and the like, I say lent it all come tumbling down and lent really see what a consumer-greed-speculative bubble burst really looks like, maybe then next time things will be different, and bny the way you cannot help the homeowners with by default bailing the snake oil salesmen and banks, etc. who got in this mess to begin with.
Amen, Fat Lady! You said it well.
Again it shows how completely out of touch the WH, congress etc is with the people. These people don't give a sh*t about what is happening on the streets of America to good hard working people. The American dream is gone and will never return.
The Bush regime has done more harm to Americas than any so called terrorist has ever done.
Corrupt money and power bring hardship and unhappiness, and yet the dummies compete for it. The entire city is inbred and corrupt. Each day I say to myself it can't get any worse and each day it does. America is on the cutting edge of corruption. It seems that every ounce of creative energy in Washington is invested in free market corruption. They have to know that there is now a corruption bubble. I also think they know what happen when it bursts.
David Sirota writes:
Such virulent strains of Potomac Fever have many causes.
**************
Added to David's causes should be the reminder that kissing ass and having ones ass kissed is very addictive habit. What at first seems disgusting, later becomes amusing, then a passion, and finally an obsession. "Potomac fever" will disappear as soon as Senators, congressional representatives, adminstration appointees, and their collective staffs "just say no" to all the conferences, dinners, "fact-finding trips", and think-tank symp[osia promoted by lobbyists.
If all lobbyists were required to wear signs proclaiming: "I will kiss your ass for the vote I want" maybe it will remind our elected legislators of the virulent breed of vermin to which they are exposed.
Here is an analysis of the old testament/american Idol attitudes towards the poor caught up in this financial predator/prey interaction - http://www.blognow.com.au/mrpickwick/87053/What_would_Jesus_do_.html. Seems the states have moved on to the new testament!
Did you ever read my story, "The Switch," that I gave you when we met in Atlanta? It's now posted at www.stoplittering.com/theswitch.htm
I found a literary agent for it last week.
Change Congress, Changing the White House is not enough
www.carolmillercongress.com
I'll bet the federal government come down on the states for what they're trying to do, just as it did with the CA emisions plan, and tell them they can't do it. No doubt there's some big Office Of ... in DC that is in charge of such things as lending, mortgages, and all that. They're tying the states hands while bankrupting them, but still expecting them to keep everything on track.
I think Washington should be abolished as the seat of the Federal government. Every two years Congress should be required to shift its operations to a different city, like the Super Bowl or the World's Cup. And Congress shouldn't know which city until right before the new session begins, so they don't have time to run out and buy fancy condos in the new town. They'll have to stay in Motel 6s with average Americans, so they might have to interact with regular people for a change. And no Secret Service protection either. The rest of us have to rely on over-stretched police forces, why not our elected representatives? And Congressional pay should be indexed to the rate of inflation, so if our wages don't go up, neither do theirs. Members of the public should also be allowed unrestricted access to Congressional offices, just like any other employer. You don't have privacy rights at work, why should they? "Hey, why are you using a new pen to sign that legislation? What happened to the one I gave you last week? Think this country's made out of money or something?" In other words, they should never be allowed to forget that they are no better than their fellow citizens, and that they work for our benefit, not the other way around.
"The Washington Post Co. on Friday reported a 39 per cent drop in first quarter profit..."
Keep up the fine work, WP...
"The bill proposes $6 billion in corporate tax cuts, while families who cannot afford to repay their home loans — the group at the heart of the mortgage meltdown would get less than 2 percent of that for counseling services."
Don't the Dumbocrats control congress? Oh, I forgot; they're the Republicans' jayvees, the junior pirates and thieves trying to make the varsity team. Roll over, FDR, and tell Abe Lincoln the news.
Socialism for the rich, capitalism for everyone else. That's the American way! Greatest country in the world?
I would predict that by the time we have a single payer system, the fever will have abated.