How HAMP Alone Makes Elizabeth Warren The Only Choice For Consumer Protection

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Predatory lending is hard to define, but a product that churns people deeper into debt where there isn’t an expectation that they can pay this debt should be considered predatory. And that is exactly how HAMP functions. Millions of people see HAMP as their interaction with the government, with what the government is capable of, and this creates disillusionment and discredits the liberal state in a profound way.

And Warren Demands Accountability

The Congressional Oversight Panel, lead by Warren, has been at the lead at making information public and bringing the complaints of the people straight to those in power. (It falls under her jurisdiction because HAMP uses TARP money.) When you see the fights on youtube between Warren and Geithner, the biggest ones, the ones that make Geithner cringe the most, it is about how HAMP isn’t working. Click through on that link to watch a video that gets straight to this. She demands accountability from the government and from the banking sector on the single most important issues facing Americans right now.

This is important. There’s pressure to be quiet, to hope that a quick housing and economic recovery will just make this whole foreclosure crisis go away. But Warren has demanded answers. COP released a report n early 2009 about the problems with HAMP, data collection and foreclosure, a report that still stands up. She’s done that at every step of TARP, but it matters here specifically for consumer protection.

And this is exactly how the CFPA should work. They fight to get good information disclosed to the public about how the banks and the Treasury department are failing the American people, reporters and wonks explain the information to the public, Treasury is held accountable. Treasury is currently working overtime to make HAMP work better; every month they are putting pressure where they can to make it better. That’s how a healthy government is supposed to work, but it can only be done if the tone is set by an outsider. And Elizabeth Warren is the one qualified with a proven track record in standing up to the banks and to the Treasury.

And as Steve Clemmons wrote: “its about time that at minimum, the White House got a ‘team of rivals’ on economicy policy rather than just a ‘Team of Rubins.’”