August 29, 2007 (LPAC) Democratic Presidential pre-candidate Barack Obama chose the London Financial Times to lay out his plan to deal with mortgage foreclosures in the United States: Fine the subprime lenders who sold deceptive mortgages to homebuyers, and use the proceeds to help bail out these borrowers. Obama's villain behind the subprime crisis is "the lobbyists" for the subprime industry, rather than the hedge funds and predatory financial institutions. Some 90 of the lender firms he'd like to fine, have gone under this year!

Obama thus becomes the latest Democrat to flunk the mortgage crisis which threatens foreclosures for seven million Americans before the end of 2007. Democratic statesman Lyndon LaRouche has presented the successful Franklin Roosevelt approach in his Homeowners and Bank Protection Act of 2007; which outlines appointing a Federal authority to keep people in their homes as the first step, then a freeze of mortgages while property and mortgage values are reassessed without the speculative bubble aspects.

Democratic Presidential pre-candidate Hillary Clinton's plan on the foreclosure crisis calls for banning fees that penalize early mortgage repayments, and for the creation of a $1 billion fund to help homeowners avoid foreclosure.

Sen. John Edwards calls for banning a list of bad lending practices, including balloon loans; he has also proposed a bank bailout, through creation of a "large Home Rescue Fund," allowing a government agency to take over inflated mortgages.

U.S. Senator Chris Dodd, Chair of the Senate Banking Committee as well as a Democratic Presidential pre-candidate, has called for raising the limits of mortgages which Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae may guarantee, thus avoiding foreclosures, he believes, by putting a government guarantee behind many more mortgages. Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), Chair of the House Banking Committee, supports this approach.

U.S. Sen. Charles E. Schumer, chairman of the Joint Economic Committee and the Senate Banking Subcommittee on Housing, called on the Federal Reserve Chairman and Treasury Secretary to use their influence to encourage "major market players" to modify or refinance loans in danger of defaulting.