Immediate steps should be taken to ensure that people can stay in their homes.
1. Immediate freeze on foreclosures.
2. Raise the minimum wage, so people can keep up with their mortgages.
3. Extend Medicare coverage to all. This is perhaps the single most effective and long-lasting supportive action to help Americans stay in their homes.
Why?
The number one reason that people lose their homes is catastrophic medical expense, followed by loss of a job and divorce/loss of a wage earner in the home, as both follow as dire consequences.
(T)he cost of universal health care would be at least $34-$69 billion, plus whatever costs are associated with covering out-of-pocket expenses and uncompensated care for the uninsured. Specific solutions may entail additional expenses as well, depending on their design parameters.
Link to pdf Somehow, the $34-$69 billion dollar price for universal single payer health coverage for all Americans sounds like a GREAT DEAL when compared with the $700 BILLION that Paulson wants, to bail out his and Bush's Wall Street buddies. The only way to address this economic catastrophe unleashed by Bush and his cronies will be to focus economic support from THE BOTTOM UP and NOT the top down. The obscenely wealthy robbers of Wall Street should pay for their failures.
Bailout plan rejected in House in 228-205 voteBy Chris Isidore, CNNMoney.com senior writer
Last Updated: September 29, 2008: 3:17 PM ET
.....Republican leaders who had pushed their reluctant members for the bill blamed Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., saying that her speech during the floor debate drove away about a dozen Republicans they thought they could get to support the measure.
"I do believe we could have gotten there today if it had not been for this partisan speech the speaker gave on the floor of the House," said Boehner.
.....
Speaking to reporters, Pelosi said that both Democratic and Republican leaders had pledged to get more than half their members to support the package and that only the Democrats had lived up to that promise.
"The legislation may have failed, the crisis is still with us," she said.
Earlier, speaking on the House floor, Pelosi said "$700 billion a staggering number, but only a part of the cost of the failed Bush economic policies - policies that were built on budget recklessness ... combined with an anything goes economic policy, have taken us to where we are today."
Cry us a river, Boehner. Bush very disappointed by House vote on bailout, will meet with team to discuss next stepsAssociated Press
2:29 PM EDT, September 29, 2008