By Mike Colpitts
Little government aid is available to homeowners struggling to hold on to their homes caught in the grip of economic hardship, according to a 
leading attorney who is spearheading legal action against seven of the nation’s largest banks in the foreclosure crisis.
Attorney Philip Kramer, whose firm Kramer-Kaslow of Calabasas, California has filed mass joiner lawsuits against Bank of America, Wells Fargo Bank, CitiBank, and JP Morgan Chase among others to halt foreclosures is convinced there is actually little that government leaders are doing in Washington, D.C. and may be on a course to dump homeowner aid all together.
“If you look at how the Democrats in Congress and the Republicans are bending over backwards to find ways not to discipline banks, it’s disheartening,” Kramer said. “Just look at what they’re up to.
“Alabama Senator Richard Shelby, the ranking Republican on the Senate Banking Committee, recently dismissed as a regulatory shakedown the efforts by the CFPB and other federal agencies and state attorneys general to negotiate a settlement that would include significant changes to the foreclosure process and as much as $20 billion in mortgage principal reductions.”
Efforts by members of Congress amount to little more than political manipulation and could amount to lawmakers setting up a series of steps to dump homeowner aid, which means that the only way homeowners will get help is if “they fight for their rights on their own.”
“They’re too busy trying to help the banks,” said Kramer. “It’s not just one party who is working against your interests. Congressional Republicans aiming to dismantle President Barack Obama’s agenda have set their sights on an easy target – housing programs that even Democrats, gearing up to fight the cuts, concede have been mismanaged.”
Seven bills have been offered in Congress to eliminate housing recovery programs implemented to aid homeowners. But only slightly more than 600,000 homeowners have been helped through the Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP), Neighborhood Stabilization Program, FHA Refinance Program and the Emergency Homeowner Relief Fund.
“It seems the only chance a homeowner is going to have in seeking redress is through the courts,” Kramer said. “The system is clearly stacked in favor of the banks, and whether or not we like it the system is not going to protect the individual.”