MASSACHUSETTS DEMOCRATIC CONVENTION, MAY 19, 2007
Resolution on the Housing Crisis
Whereas, there are projections of up to two million families in danger of losing their homes in the near term because of foreclosure, with thousands of these in Massachusetts, due to false over-inflation of housing prices, and predatory loan practices which saddled families with un-payable mortgages,
Whereas, because of changes in law in the 1970's and 1980's, mortgage loans were allowed to become a financial instrument (Mortgage Back Securities—MBS's) to be sold and traded on the markets, and the current popping of the speculative bubble of MBS's is rapidly bankrupting hedge funds and companies such as New Century Financial and GMAC,
Whereas, because of these bankruptcies, pensions and municipal healthcare funds, which have been invested into these financial corporations are threatened with being wiped out, as well as the assets of major U.S. banks which have up to 50% of their assets tied up in these MBS's, putting the entire banking system at risk,
Whereas, the Preamble of the Constitution demands that the government put the General Welfare of the population before the rights of financial entities to collect debt,
Therefore, be it resolved, that the Democratic Party of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts calls on our delegation to the federal Congress to act as Franklin D. Roosevelt did in dealing with the housing crisis in the 1930's. We call on our Congressional Delegation to introduce emergency measures which would immediately freeze the current debt and mortgage obligations, as well as the chain of financial instruments built upon them, until such obligations can be sorted out and reorganized in the context of a larger bankruptcy reorganization of the U.S. banking system, while placing a moratorium on foreclosures to keep the homeowners in their houses and prevent mass homelessness of thousands of American families in the near term.
