Barney Frank and mortgages

I found a few tidbits in the news about efforts to get at the main cause of our current economic woes.

U.S. House Meeting On Financial Rescue Rescheduled

Monday January 5th, 2009 / 21h52

By Jessica Holzer Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES WASHINGTON -(Dow Jones)- A Wednesday meeting of a U.S. House panel on the $700 billion financial rescue has been postponed indefinitely.
A statement from the House Financial Services Committee did not specify a new date for the meeting but indicated that it would be rescheduled. The panel chairman, Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., had called the meeting to discuss the incoming Obama administration's use of the remaining funds authorized under the Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP.
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Chairman Sheila Bair were expected to appear before the panel, Dow Jones Newswires reported Friday.
The current Treasury Department has committed $358.4 billion of the $700 billion of TARP funds. However, only slightly more than $200 billion has been spent.
Treasury must receive approval from Congress to spend the remaining $350 billion, and it cannot release the entire $358.4 billion it has committed without Congress' consent.

and

WASHINGTON, Jan 5 (Reuters) - U.S. Rep. Barney Frank, a Massachusetts Democrat and chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, in a CNBC television interview:

* Says the Democrats' economic stimulus package 'will help improve the quality of life' with better bridges, mass transit, environment in addition to creating jobs.

* Says he has been focusing on Treasury Dept's $700 billion TARP program, not on potential changes in U.S. business tax rates at this time.

* Says TARP program must be used to help reduce mortgage foreclosures and that other non-financial industries' potential use of TARP money 'depends on what the purpose would be'.

* Says 'getting the credit loosened up' should be No. 2 priority after reducing U.S. mortgage foreclosures.

He had to reschedule the TARP discussion so they could take up the Madoff scheme and the regulatory failures the let it happen. They'll get to it. Deep cleansing breath, Buck.