From the Canadian Free Press:
Not only did Barack Obama's presidential campaign pay more than U.S. $800,000 to a front of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform, Now, ACORN, currently under investigation in a dozen States for voter registration fraud and bribery schemes, for “get-out-the-vote-efforts”; Obama co-sponsored legislation called the “Helping Families Save their Homes in Bankruptcy Act of 2007”-- that was supported by ACORN and protects them.
Why would groups like ACORN, who according to Stanley Kurtz’s “O Dangerous Pals” undermined “the US economy by pushing the banking system into a sinkhole of bad loans…. by forcing banks to make hundreds of millions of dollars in “subprime” loans to often un-creditworthy poor and minority customers…” support this legislation?
Perhaps because it provides Chapter 13 Bankruptcy protections to homeowners who didn’t have the means to buy homes, and it protects people who put those borrowers into these high-risk mortgages.
...Another key reason why groups like ACORN support this legislation because it: “Prohibits the court from allowing a claim that is subject to any remedy for damages or rescission due to failure to comply with the Truth in Lending Act or any other state or federal consumer protection law.”
The Truth in Lending Act (TILA) was designed to create “economic stabilization and competition by informed use of credit by consumers (emphasis added).” Under TILA the law also applies “to persons who are not creditors but who provide applications for home equity plans to consumers.” This bill absolves organizations of any guilt or culpability under TILA; perhaps the same organizations who intimidated and bullied banks into providing risky loans to unqualified borrowers like ACORN.
If this legislation does not pass, then these “persons who are not creditors,” could face “criminal penalties” for “willful and knowing violations of TILA,” which could result in a “fine of $5,000, imprisonment for up to one year, or both.”
From the writer of the article, here are some specific provisions of the act:
§ 103. Definitions and rules of construction
(a) The definitions and rules of construction set forth in this section are applicable for the purposes of this title.
(b) The term "Board" refers to the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System.
(c) The term "organization" means a corporation, government or governmental subdivision or agency, trust, estate, partnership, cooperative, or association.
(d) The term "person" means a natural person or an organization.
§ 112. Criminal liability for willful and knowing violation
Whoever willfully and knowingly
(1) gives false or inaccurate information or fails to provide information which he is required to disclose under the provisions of this title or any regulation issued thereunder,
(2) uses any chart or table authorized by the Board under section 107 in such a manner as to consistently understate the annual percentage rate determined under section 107(a)(1)(A), or
(3) otherwise fails to comply with any requirement imposed under this title, shall be fined not more than $5,000 or imprisoned not more than one year, or both.
Here is the text from the "Helping Families Save their Homes in Bankruptcy Act of 2007 that absolves culpability: ""Prohibits the court from allowing a claim that is subject to any remedy for damages or rescission due to failure to comply with the Truth in Lending Act or any other state or federal consumer protection law."
