Disappointed Democrat

I am disappointed about the response of the Democratic congress to the current "crisis" in the financial system.

First, there have been warning signs for over a year. There has been lots of time to analyze the problem, and come up with policy recommendations in a thoughtful manner. As far as I can see, this time has been totally wasted, so that now the administration and the congress are in a panic, reactive mode. I am pessimistic about the legislation passed today. I predict that within a year, there will be a lot of these congressmen saying that they were forced to vote for it, that "if they knew then what they know now", they would have voted differently.

Second, the approach is primarily top-down. It does little to address a major underlying problem, which is the many families who are upside-down on their home mortgages, and over their heads in payments they can not meet. Why has the Democratic congress not acted to allow home mortgages to be the subject of bankruptcy court proceedings? This would force the home owners and the lenders to negotiate new terms (lower principal, lower interest rates) that would save many of these situations from foreclosure, and bolster the fabric of many neighborhoods. Why has a Democratic congress not addressed this fundamental public policy issue?