Mikey's Game Of "Past Is Prologue In PA-08"

The Bucks County Courier Times tells us the following today (here)…

As evidence mounts that mortgage lenders have been evicting homeowners using flawed paperwork, Congressman Patrick Murphy is calling for a moratorium on home foreclosures "to ensure families in Bucks County and across America get a fair shake."

"With so many families struggling to keep their homes and revelations that some families may have lost their home to fraud, we need to take action and immediately freeze foreclosures," Murphy, the two-term 8th District Democrat, said. "The freeze will give these families the opportunity to keep the home they have worked long and hard to buy and give the government time to investigate these charges of fraud."

The Federal Reserve on Monday became the latest government regulator to announce it would be looking into whether mortgage companies cut corners on their own procedures when seizing homes.

Chairman Ben Bernanke said the Fed would look intensively to see if policies, procedures or internal controls led lenders to improperly foreclosure on homeowners. Preliminary results of an in-depth report are expected to be released next month.

Murphy said the moratorium should last until lenders "can vouch for the integrity of their own process."

Mike Fitzpatrick, Murphy's Republican opponent in the fast-approaching midterm election, said "Congressman Murphy's economic policy has always been to improperly interfere in the free market. And his support for higher taxes, increased government spending and bigger deficits are the cause of high unemployment and, ultimately, the higher rate of foreclosures."

And as usual, Mikey offers no solutions, only criticism.

There are a lot of reasons why Fitzpatrick should do the right thing and shut his damn mouth on this issue if he has not a clue as to how to address it. I’m thinking of basic human decency first and foremost (apparently, Mikey needs a bit of a refresher course on that subject after watching him during this campaign), but I’m thinking of political reasons also.

To understand what I mean, I would ask that you read about a bill from the happily-now-long-gone 109th Congress, and that would be HR 1295, the Responsible Lending Act (here). The bill was sponsored by former Repug U.S. House Rep from Ohio Bob Ney, who was convicted of conspiracy and making false statements in the Jack Abramoff scandal.

The title of the bill sounds benign enough, I realize, but as noted here…

Consumer advocates are bringing out big names from the civil rights world to try to keep a lending industry-backed bill on predatory mortgage lending from rolling through Congress the way recent bankruptcy legislation did.

NAACP Chairman Julian Bond, the Rev. Jesse L. Jackson and Wade Henderson, executive director of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, and their groups are joining with consumer groups to oppose a bill introduced earlier this month by Rep. Robert W. Ney (R-Ohio), chairman of the House Financial Services housing subcommittee, and Rep. Paul E. Kanjorski (D-Pa.), the senior Democrat on the capital markets subcommittee.

The civil rights leaders and the head of the National Fair Housing Alliance are expected to issue a statement today urging Congress to reject the Ney-Kanjorski proposal. The Post obtained a copy of the statement yesterday.

…

The civil rights groups contend that the Ney-Kanjorski approach falls far short of what is needed to stop abusive lending targeted at minorities, the elderly and immigrants and instead removes protections in existing federal law and in state and local regulations. The states and local jurisdictions have been passing laws since about 1999 as lending to subprime, or higher-risk, borrowers has exploded. Although not all subprime lending is predatory, complaints about abusive lending, with hidden or excessive fees and deceptive practices, have skyrocketed as higher-cost, subprime loans have become available.

Subprime lending now accounts for about 20 percent of the mortgage market, with about $500 billion in new loans last year.
…

Consumer groups have painted the Ney-Kanjorski bill as intolerable and an "evisceration" of state and federal protections.

(I would ask that you keep in mind that this story was written in 2005 - this tells us what would become of the subprime mortgage mess, for which Kanjorski can answer for himself as far as I'm concerned).

And by the way, I would also ask that you go back to the GovTrack link above and click on the list of the 39 cosponsors. Guess whose name appears when you click to read the list?

Why, Michael Fitzpatrick, R of PA-08, that’s who.

Now who’s guilty of “improperly interfering with the free market,” Mikey? Now who’s guilty of trying to exacerbate “the higher rate of foreclosures”?

This is all part and parcel of Mikey’s foul term in office, also epitomized by the following (as noted here)…

• Card Check: Fitzpatrick was a co-sponsor of the Employee Free Choice Act and is pictured on the AFL-CIO website signing an enlarged copy of the bill. In 2010, he is against Card Check.

• Cap and Trade: Fitzpatrick was a co-cosponsor with Henry Waxman on the Safe Climate Act of 2006. In 2010, he is against Cap and Trade.

• Earmark Reform: Fitzpatrick continued to fight for Pork Barrel Spending in the 109th Congress. In 2010, he wants earmark reform.

• Government Spending: Fitzpatrick received a "D" letter grade from the National Taxpayer Union in 2006. In 2010, he says we need to spend less.

• Energy/Off-Shore Drilling: Fitzpatrick opposed off-shore and ANWR drilling and voted against the American-Made Energy and Good Jobs Act of 2006. In 2010, he wants to explore drilling.

• Tax Cuts: Fitzpatrick opposed tax cuts and job creation (HR 6, The Energy Policy Act of 2005 - Roll Call #132 - 4/21/05). In 2010, he wants to focus on tax cuts and jobs.

And just as a further reminder, I give you the following from here…

- Here’s Mikey failing the mothers of children suffering from autism as these women advocate exploring whether or not vaccines could be responsible for this awful affliction.

- Here’s Mikey sponsoring something called the Railroad Security and Public Awareness Act, which supposedly provides more funding for mass transit security; the problem is that the bill is currently stuck in a House subcommittee.

- Here’s Mikey doing nothing (nothing good, anyway) about rising personal property taxes, health care costs, and student loan costs.

- Here’s Mikey “considering” supporting legislation to allow Medicare Part D recipients to buy drugs in bulk for less money, even though Medicare Part D wasn't listed as an issue on his “Mike On The Issues” health care page from his campaign web site).

- Here’s Mikey’s ridiculous criticism of Patrick Murphy for attending a fundraiser in Washington, D.C. hosted by Nancy Pelosi when, to quote the Doylestown Intelligencer, Mikey “never met a PAC contribution he didn’t welcome” (and God, how tedious the “Murphy/Pelosi” linkages have gotten, even when they frequently have had no basis in reality).

- Here’s more evidence of Mikey the "independent moderate" supporting Bushco both on the Iraq war and its failed domestic agenda also.

- Here’s Mikey voting to fund something called the Secure Fence Act (as opposed to an “insecure” fence? Does it have self esteem issues?) which provides funding for a fence along the Arizona/New Mexico border nowhere near the 8th congressional district, while Mikey and the Repugs voted down a host of homeland security measures including increasing the number of border patrol agents…and by the way, here is an update.

- Here’s Mikey stating his support for adult stem cell research, which holds nowhere near the potential for curing life-threatening illnesses as embryonic stem cells.

- Here’s Mikey supporting Social Security privatization and taking campaign funding from Dick Cheney, though he proclaims himself an “independent moderate.”

- Here’s Mikey voting against homeland security measures (I know I mentioned that above also) though he DID vote to fund the infamous Bridge to Nowhere in Alaska…talk about supporting “increased government spending,” a criticism which is actually hilarious anyway considering the debt racked up by the wretched 109th.

- Here’s Mikey voting for a conference report allowing drilling in the ANWR, and also voting against investing in cleaner energy (the mailing once in question, by the way, had no mention of the fact that Fitzpatrick is a Republican, though it did contain a quote from JFK as well as the former president’s picture).

- Here’s Mikey stating that he’s abandoned Bush’s policy on Iraq (Dubya had one?) while Fitzpatrick offered no plan of his own instead.

- Here’s Mikey trying to include an estate tax cut in legislation to raise the minimum wage (the legislation was defeated…again, I give you an example of “increased government spending”).

- Here’s Mikey’s sudden conversion to exploring alternative energy sources to lower energy costs, though in ’05, he voted against bills to crack down on gasoline price gougers and creating a strategic refinery reserve.

- Here’s Mikey calling for hearings on Bucks County flooding, even though, as a member of the Delaware River Basin Commission, he should have been familiar with the issue already.

- Here’s Mikey shredding the safety net for our most vulnerable citizens and remaining silent while Bush tried to raise acceptable levels of mercury in our drinking water.

- Mikey wasted no time here in calling Iraq war vet Patrick Murphy “a cut-and-run liberal” right after Patrick defeated Andy Warren in the Democratic primary four years ago.

- Mikey favored weakening House ethics rules, and his excuse was that he was trying to help pass a homeland security bill.

- Here’s Mikey supporting the House immigration bill punishing religious aid workers, including Catholics (his faith, for the five people who don't know that in PA-08 because they apparently aren't reminded frequently by the Courier Times).

- Here is the context in which Mikey provided that wonderful quote saying he’d win in ‘06 “If Bush had a 50 percent or better approval rating”...and recall that Mikey recently claimed that he lost in '06 "because of Bush and Iraq."

- Here’s Mikey trying to fudge on the “honesty” pledge he signed for the Bucks County Courier Times almost right after he signed it (with Mikey’s great quote, “The truth is a matter of interpretation”).

- Here’s Mikey traveling to Iraq to check on our troops, including whether or not they have adequate body armor, but not saying whether or not they actually do (and as a bonus, he also channels “Crazy Curt” Weldon’s “Able Danger” nonsense…truly a “golden oldie”).

- And FINALLY, here’s Mikey refusing to say whether he thinks Don (“The Former Defense Secretary You (Had)”) Rumsfeld should stay or go.

Also, in another chapter of “Today In Mikey Fitzpatrick History, More or Less,” this tells us that our former rep bailed out on a candidates’ media forum while Patrick Murphy called him out over “a slew of negative ads” (Fitzpatrick’s excuse was that he had to attend a Newtown Supervisors meeting over the issue of the veterans’ cemetery – Patrick made sure the cameras followed Mikey as he left; in response Mikey “turned towards Murphy and stared at him before leaving”).

In addition, here is a reminder from the SEIU about how Fitzpatrick "failed to support U.S. troops, voting against rightful survivor benefits for families of fallen service members." Now, (Iraq war vet Jared) Baker says in the ad, "it's time to vote against him."

Please click here to support Congressman Patrick Murphy. And vote as if your livelihood depends on it because, if Mikey and the Repugs return to power and pursue what will probably be a ruinous course once more to “press restart” on making the mess they made once before all over again, plunging our economy into catastrophe in the process, it probably will.

Update: Not sure how I forgot this item in the post above, but I did...oops.