Don't Accept a Taxpayer-funded Handout to Wall Street Crooks

From the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights:

Our country is facing troubling economic times not seen since the great depression. Last week, the federal government announced that it would spend hundreds of billions of dollars to bail out Wall Street - and given the size of the crisis, the government may have no choice.

However, the government should not change the rules for Wall Street only then to ignore the plight of homeowners. Experts including the Secretary of Treasury and Chair of the Federal Reserve Board have said that the market will only stabilize when there is an end to the cycle of widespread foreclosures and the decline of home prices and financial asset values.

The Rescue bill that Congress is now considering should not ignore homeowners in the rush to bail out banks and brokerage firms, many of whom engaged in the reckless lending and irresponsible risk taking that created this situation in the first place.

In the very same legislation that will be using our tax dollars to bail out the financial services industry from a self-imposed crisis, Congress must give homeowners a chance to save their homes by allowing bankruptcy judges to reset mortgages for families on the brink of foreclosure.

Allowing homeowners to modify their loans, by using the Chapter 13 bankruptcy process to set up realistic and affordable mortgage payment plans, will give not just homeowners, but local communities and the economy, an opportunity to recover from this crisis - without any cost to taxpayers.

Call your members of Congress today at (202) 224-3121 and urge them to include bankruptcy protections for homeowners in the Rescue bill.