State of the Union by President Obama to the joint session of the United States Congress and the Republican response to the State of the Union address
Obama stated in his State of the Union address: “It is our unfinished task to restore the basic bargain that built this country – the idea that if you work hard and meet your responsibilities,you can get ahead, no matter where you come from, what you look like, or who you love.” Yet millions of American families are suffering from the inequitable injustice of predatory loans and fraudulent foreclosures that is still not being addressed.
Los Angeles - February 13, 2013 - As expected, in the State of the Union address by President Obama and the Republican response by Senator Rubio, both parties failed to address the American people on the ongoing foreclosure crisis.
As a candidate before his first term, President Obama said, "If we don't act swiftly on the foreclosure crisis there will be chaos." Years after this crisis, IT IS STILL CHAOS! Very little has been done to help homeowners. And millions of victims have lost their homes while millions more are facing foreclosure this year. But President Obama has said very little. As a matter of fact the little he did say was a "white-washed" version of the real housing crisis: "Our housing market is healing, our stock market is rebounding, and consumers, patients, and homeowners enjoy stronger protections than ever before."
Yet, after multiple investigations by many agencies on the housing/foreclosure fiasco and with all the evidence of major fraud and abuses by Wall Street, we still have the same response by the government: "Banks too big to fail--Bankers too big to go to jail." In fact, the same banks that committed financial terrorism against millions of American families have received protection by prosecutors, courts, regulators and both political parties. After years into this crisis and with millions of victims, there is still not one banker that has gone to jail for the "crime of the century."
It is time to recognize the crimes foisted upon American families. As our president talks about making it safer for our children, by implementing gun control, there are many more children suffering through the trauma of watching their family lose their home to fraudulent foreclosures.
While President Obama found the courage to stand up to the gun lobby with his new proposals to curtail gun violence, there has been no sigh that his administration is willing to buck the equally entrenched bank lobby or to defend its even more numerous victims, says OFF's Carlos Marroquin.
"I have been victimized by both guns and banks," says Columbine High massacre survivor Richard Castaldo, who took 8 bullets in the 1999 high school shootout and now faces foreclosure on the Hollywood condo he was buying with the help of settlement proceeds. "It might sound like apples and oranges," Castaldo adds, "and it'll be great if we can keep guns out of the hands of a maniac. But I have to say there's also serious victims of guys wielding foreclosure papers -- and we also need to get them under control. Fact is, that can be life-threatening too. I've met 90-some-year-old ladies facing being thrown out on the street. You can't say their lives aren't at risk, And usually," Richard adds, "they are just as innocent as the random victims of gun nuts."
Senator Rubio, who gave the Republican response, also continued to bury his head in the sand with regard to the housing issue. The Republican Party has been opposed to doing anything about the crisis--especially in regard to implementing regulations. Their party leaders have said that we should let the market fix itself. Florida, Senator Rubio’s home state, has been one hardest hit in the U.S. and will continue to suffer while he fights against regulations for the criminals, leading us to believe that he, like many politicians, has ceased to work for the people he represents. "And the truth is every problem can’t be solved by government. Many are caused by the moral breakdown in our society. And the answers to those challenges lie primarily in our families and our faiths, not our politicians", said Senator Rubio.
We at Occupy Fights Foreclosures will continue to stand for the American homeowners and we will continue to seek justice for families in danger of losing their homes, until we are recognized and heard. “While President Obama found the courage to stand up to the gun lobby with his new proposals to curtail gun violence, there has been no evidence that his administration is willing to buck the equally entrenched bank lobby or to defend its even more numerous victims,” says OFF's Carlos Marroquin.
