David Sirota - The Plague of Potomac Fever

http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/3665/the_plague_of_potomac_fever/

The Plague of Potomac Fever
By David Sirota

May 2, 2008

If any publication was going to document the sickness known as Potomac Fever, it was going to be the Washington Post.

Last month, the newspaper penned a front-page dispatch headlined “Housing Accord Puts Builders First; Strapped Homeowners Offered Little Aid.” It described congressional leaders agreeing to “provide billions of dollars in tax rebates to the slumping home-building industry while offering little to homeowners threatened with foreclosure.” The bill proposes $6 billion in corporate tax cuts, while “families who cannot afford to repay their home loans — the group at the heart of the mortgage meltdown” would get less than 2 percent of that for “counseling services.”

Next to this story was a report labeled “Sweeping Bills Passed to Help Homeowners.” It told of Maryland state lawmakers “toughening oversight of the mortgage-lending industry and establishing preemptive measures to help people at risk of foreclosure.”

The newspaper page was a scientific proof, with states as the control. They show what minimally healthy democratic systems do: help ordinary people. That’s different from a Congress ravaged by Potomac Fever — the disease inside the Washington Beltway inhibiting emotions like compassion and integrity. As the housing crisis intensifies, this malady is getting worse.

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http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/3665/the_plague_of_potomac_fever/

. . .State legislators are demanding aid to borrowers. Delegate Dereck Davis (D-Md.) told the Washington Post that homeowners “need a federal bailout from Congress.”

But in the land of Potomac Fever, bailouts are for financial firms. Congressman Barney Frank (D-Mass.) in fact, told newspapers “it’s irrelevant” how many homeowners — if any — are ever helped. According to The Hill newspaper, he is pushing industry-backed legislation that would federally guarantee banks’ outstanding mortgages for modest write-downs. The proposal deliberately avoids forcing banks to freeze interest rates.