Senate Update

Yesterday I blogged about a new stimulus bill in the Senate that had some huge red flags in it.  There's an update today:

Members of the US Senate are patting themselves on the back over their agreement on a housing bill yesterday. ... A disastrous provision to allow bankruptcy judges to rewrite mortgage contracts was dropped, but Republicans agreed to include another key provision pushed by Democrats: $100 million for mortgage counseling to be administered by non-profit groups. The Dems originally pushed for $200 million.

Remember how I've talked before about compromise only benefiting the liberal Democrats?  This is another perfect example.  The Dems wanted $200 million, the Reps argued them down to $100 million; the point, though, is that it's still $100 million for so-called mortgage counseling!  There shouldn't be ANY money going to this, especially in this time of economic stress!  Where are the fiscally responsible Republicans on this??  Malkin asks the question this way:

What I haven't heard publicly from a single Republican senator is any objection to where all that money is going–and what exactly taxpayers are getting for it. Conservatives in the Senate (the few of them that are left) seem to have just rolled over and accepted at face value the liberal premise that the subprime mess was primarily created by a lack of education–as opposed to high-risk borrowers and lenders consciously making bad decisions and expecting now to be insulated from the consequences of their actions. From the way Harry Reid and company talk about the $100 million mortgage counseling provision, you would think helpless, hapless, vulnerable borrowers are being left adrift with no one to turn to for information.

As I've pointed out several times over the past year, mortgage counseling is a thriving racket that benefits far Left groups ranging from the AARP to ACORN to La Raza and Legal Aid. The Department of Housing and Urban Development funds hundreds, if not thousands, of these groups across the country. In October, HUD announced more than $44 million in new housing counseling grants to over 400 state and local efforts. The White House has increased funding for housing counseling by 150 percent since taking office in 2001.

She links to lists of these far-Left groups who apparently do mortgage 'counseling'.  Some of the bigger recipients of this government aid are:

*The AARP scored nearly $400,000 for training.
*The National Council of La Raza scooped up more than $1.3 million.
*The National Urban League raked in nearly $1 million.
*ACORN Housing Corporation received more than $1.6 million.

All of these groups are fully in the tank for Democrats.  Again, my question is: where are the Republicans?  Are they really so stupid that they would willingly fund their opposition's biggest lobbyist groups?  Apparently so.

Call and e-mail your Senators again, especially if they're Republicans.  Ask them what they're thinking, and tell them you're watching their votes.

There's my two cents.