Take a Guess: How Many Are Homeless in Los Angeles?

How many are homeless in America? Go ahead, guess.

How many more are soon to join their ranks?

This week:

The percentage of Americans who were delinquent on their home loans rose to 4.7% in the fourth quarter, the highest level since mid-2003. Late mortgage payments soared in the hurricane-stricken states of Louisiana and Mississippi.

And homes going into foreclosure reached alarming levels in a handful of Midwest states - Ohio, Indiana and Michigan - that were once the backbone of industrial America but have seen an exodus of manufacturing jobs.

The number of foreclosures is expected to rise this year. The rates of new foreclosures in Michigan, Indiana, Wisconsin and Georgia are at their highest since 1979.

"This is evidence of a structural change - an economic chain reaction," Duncan said.

This is going to come back and bite the asses of all the DINOs in the House and in the Senate who voted for the Bankruptcy Reform Act of 2005. As it should.

Which Democrats in the Senate championed the cause of the rich and enabled Republicans to pass this abomination?:

Baucus (D-MT), Yea
Bayh (D-IN), Yea
Biden (D-DE), Yea
Bingaman (D-NM), Yea
Byrd (D-WV), Yea
Carper (D-DE), Yea
Clinton (D-NY), Not Voting
Conrad (D-ND), Yea
Inouye (D-HI), Yea
Johnson (D-SD), Yea
Kohl (D-WI), Yea
Landrieu (D-LA), Yea
Lincoln (D-AR), Yea
Nelson (D-FL), Yea
Nelson (D-NE), Yea
Pryor (D-AR), Yea
Reid (D-NV), Yea
Salazar (D-CO), Yea
Stabenow (D-MI), Yea

In the House it was these Democrats:

Andrews
Baca
Baird
Bean
Berry
Bishop (GA)
Boren
Boswell
Boucher
Boyd
Cardoza
Case
Chandler
Cleaver
Cooper
Costa
Cramer
Crowley
Cuellar
Davis (AL)
Davis (FL)
Davis (TN)
Edwards
Etheridge
Ford, Harold
Gonzalez
Gordon
Green, Al
Harman
Herseth
Higgins
Hinojosa
Holden
Hooley
Hoyer
Israel
Jefferson
Kind
Larsen (WA)
Matheson
McCarthy
McIntyre
Meek (FL)
Meeks (NY)
Melancon
Menendez
Michaud
Mollohan
Moore (KS)
Moran (VA)
Murtha
Ortiz
Pastor
Peterson (MN)
Pomeroy
Price (NC)
Rahall
Reyes
Ross
Rothman
Ruppersberger
Salazar
Schwartz (PA)
Scott (GA)
Skelton
Spratt
Strickland
Tanner
Tauscher
Taylor (MS)
Thompson (CA)
Wu
Wynn

Techpolitics has a table of the bankruptcy vote, which sorts the data by caucus, vote, party and Representative as well as by the median household income for the congressional district in the 2000 census

As Critical Montages wrote:

The most important vote, however, was taken on March 8, 2005, on the "Motion to Invoke Cloture on Bill S. 256," which passed 69-31. That was "the only vote that opponents of the bill had a chance of winning" in the words of Paul Krugman ("The $600 Billion Man," New York Times 15 Mar. 2005).

Remember the 14 Democratic Senators who voted Yea, to cut off the debate on the bankruptcy bill and make it impossible to filibuster it:

Biden (D-DE)
Byrd (D-WV)
Carper (D-DE)
Conrad (D-ND)
Johnson (D-SD)
Kohl (D-WI)
Landrieu (D-LA)
Lieberman (D-CT)
Lincoln (D-AR)
Nelson (D-FL)
Nelson (D-NE)
Pryor (D-AR)
Salazar (D-CO)
Stabenow (D-MI)

Is your representative to Congress on this list? What are you going to do to protect yourself from joining the ranks of the homeless due to their slavish devotion to their corporate masters, and not to you, whom they promised to serve? Working to oust Republicans from Congress and the White House is, of course, the goal. However, to allow Republicans who hide in Democratic clothing to remain in Congress defeats the purpose of electing honest representatives for the people of the United States who can undo the damage caused by these conservative policy-makers.

Filed under: Bush, economy, election, bankruptcy bill