Useless:

Frank Says Congress to Release $350 Billion in Deal For Homeowner Relief
Dec. 20 (Bloomberg) -- [House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank said in a telephone interview yesterday that] said legislation is being drafted that will set the conditions on spending the cash after Paulson used almost half the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program to boost bank capital. Paulson resisted calls to support foreclosure relief.

Frank, a Massachusetts Democrat, said in the interview he’s drafting legislation with Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd that would release the remaining $350 billion in exchange for foreclosure help, aid for General Motors Corp. and Chrysler LLC and provisions to hold banks accountable for stepped up lending to consumers.

The measure would adopt a Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. foreclosure plan, revamp the Hope for Homeowners loan-relief program that has attracted few lenders and support a Treasury program to cut rates on some fixed-rate home-loans.

There's a proposal on the table that nobody will talk about except those who actually want to help homeowners. It's called HOLC (explanation). It was an FDR program that saved homeowners, cleaned up the balance sheets for the banks, and actually made a small profit for the country at the end of its life. Why do I have the feeling that the Village would rather not see the banks' balance sheets at all, and would do anything to stiff homeowners to avoid it?

Frank and his fellow Villagers are just tinkering around the edges as far as any solution that does anything more than help Big Money. Why a "deal"? Where's the need for a fucking quid pro quo? Why treat the lamest of lame duck Bush administration as if they had any kind of leverage? As of today, they've got thirty days in office? And the Dems are negotiating with them?*

Is it "gone where the woodbine twineth"?

Bloomberg's filed a FOIA request to find out what we don't know, which is good news, since our extremely courageous, highly functional, and secretly progressive Democratic Party hasn't so much as sent out a sternly worded letter, let alone held hearings. I wonder why?