Kicking Them While They're Down

If you can judge from the rant of CNBC's Rick Santelli against the mortgage bailout, the wingnuts still don't get it. Letting the mortgage crisis continue to fester is not going to help any of us. Yeah, yeah, a lot of the people that are going to get help probably didn't make the wisest choices when buying their homes but the banks and mortgage lenders have a lot to answer for. Let's face it, if you didn't have the financial resources to buy the house you did and yet were given a mortgage anyway then whose fault is it? Is standing by and watching the further collapse of the housing market going to do any of us any good?

We are talking a lousy $75 billion(a couple of weeks of Shrub's war) here compared to the trillions either given directly to the banks or committed in some other way. Get a grip. If you think the banks are equal partners in this mess and deserve some slack then take a look at this and then maybe rethink your position.

Edited to correct usage.

First, Arthur Santa-Maria called Bank of America to ask how to check the balance of his new unemployment benefits debit card. The bank charged him 50 cents.

He chose not to complain. That would have cost another 50 cents.

So he took out some of the money and then decided to pull out the rest. But that made two withdrawals on the same day, and that was $1.50.

For hundreds of thousands of workers losing their jobs during the recession, there’s a new twist to their financial pain: Even when they’re collecting unemployment benefits, they’re paying the bank just to get the money — or even to call customer service to complain about it.

Thirty states have struck such deals with banks that include Citigroup Inc., Bank of America Corp., JP Morgan Chase and US Bancorp, an Associated Press review of the agreements found. All the programs carry fees, and in several states the unemployed have no choice but to use the debit cards. Some banks even charge overdraft fees of up to $20 — even though they could decline charges for more than what’s on the card.

The bastards deserve any scorn they receive especially after taking our money.


h/t Ballon Juice