Elana Levin
Why Spitzer should stop foreclosures right now
Monday's Albany Times Union included an oped by DMI's executive director, Andrea Batista Schlesinger and Joel Barkin, the executive director of Progressive States Network.
In their oped, "State needs to halt home foreclosures" they advise Gov. Spitzer to enact a moratorium on foreclosures right away and also implement Minnesota-style mortgage reforms.
The oped makes strong policy AND political arguments for this course of action.
With President Bush's anemic proposal to assist homeowners meeting with lukewarm responses, the table is set for Spitzer to send a bold message that New York is capable of leading the nation in addressing one of the most pressing issues of our time. There is already a growing movement within the state Senate's Democratic Conference to propose a six-month foreclosures moratorium. By ensuring the passage of such legislation, Spitzer could regain lost allies and start to build the kind of broad-based coalition necessary to move legislation on other pressing issues affecting working families such as affordable healthcare.
Since we know that Spitzer is reading up on biographies, we're sure he knows about what Franklin Delano Roosevelt did in similar circumstances to protect the interests of ordinary citizens in the face of economic meltdown and corporate greed.
Read the full op-ed "State needs to halt home foreclosures" online here.
Posted at 4:13 AM, Jan 04, 2008 in Economic Opportunity | Economy | Financial Justice | Housing | New York | Permalink | Comments (2)
Comments
Your headline tells Mr. Spitzer to "stop foreclosures right now." Last I checked, and it's been a while, that prescription is beyond his power as Governor.
The problem with Mr. Spitzer's first year in office, as I see it, has not been his inability to stand alone on important issues. It has been his inability, thus far, to work and play well with others. Stopping foreclosures could only be done if he enlisted the cooperation of the legislature. While your programmatic formula is not a bad one, could it be supplemented with some strategic thought about how Mr. Spitzer, Mr. Bruno and Mr. Silver could get there (or how the rest of us could get them there).
Posted by: Daniel Millstone | January 4, 2008 08:49 AM
Foreclose the War, Not our Homes and Futures!
Picket and March against the War and Foreclosures
On the 5th anniversary of the criminal war in Iraq
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
4:30 (picket) - 5:30 (march)
Bank of America Tower
at 1 Bryant Park
(Sixth Ave between 42nd and 43rd St)
In this time of economic crisis, thousands of homes are being foreclosed, workers are being laid off in record numbers, and our education system and social programs are severely underfunded. Meanwhile, the raging wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are costing human lives on both sides as well as U.S. tax dollars. The population of the U.S. has proven that we are against these imperialist wars; and yet our tax dollars are going to these occupations, as opposed to our needs.
To symbolize the connection between the economic crisis and the war, we will picket the $1 billion Bank of America Tower in Midtown Manhattan and march to a candlelight vigil hosted by Nodutol to recognize the 5th anniversary of the Iraq invasion (Korea Town Plaza at 32nd Street and Broadway). Bank of America is a war profiteer and is responsible for a large number of the home foreclosures in the U.S.
The youth group F.I.S.T. (Fight Imperialism-Stand Together) is demanding an end to U.S. imperialist plunder in the Middle East, Latin America, Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe, the Balkans and the Caribbean. We demand funding for education, housing, jobs, and health care; not war and occupation.
F.I.S.T. (Fight Imperialism-Stand Together)
fistyouth.wordpress.com
212-633-6646
Posted by: tyneisha | March 17, 2008 04:57 PM