Transcripts For CSPAN3 Politics And Public Policy Today 20240622

Felt i was attacking him. I felt he was asked a tough but fair question. We agreed to disagree. Mr. Trump did interviews over the weekend that attacked me personally. Ive decided not to respond. Mr. Trump is an interesting man whos captured the attention of the electorate. Thats why hes leading in the polls. Trump, who is the front runner, will not apologize. And i certainly will not apologize for doing good journalism. So ill continue doing my job without fear or favor. And mr. Trump, i expect, will continue with what has been a Successful Campaign thus far. This is a tough business, and its time now to move forward. Megyn kelly responding last night. Hillary clinton at her event yesterday on Student Loans, she had a news conference. She reacted to last thursday nights gop debate and what mr. Trump has been saying about megyn kelly. None of the candidates offered solutions for how to make College Affordable or how to raise incomes for hardworking families. They dont even talk about the real pressures facing american families. While what donald trump said about megyn kelly is outrageous, what the rest of the republicans are saying about all women is also outrageous. They brag about slashing Womens Health care funding. They say they would force women who have been raped to carry their rapists child. And we dont hear any of them supporting raising the minimum wage, paid leave for new parents, access to quality childcare, equal pay for women, or anything else that will help to, you know, give women a chance to get ahead. Megyn kelly is a strong woman and more than capable of defending herself against donald trump. Im worried about what republican policies would do to the rest of americas women, and i will continue to speak up and speak out about that today and through the rest of this campaign and in the white house. That was Hillary Clinton yesterday responding to the trump kelly back and forth. And theres this in the newspapers this morning. The Washington Post, clinton takes an oath on turning over emails. Democratic president ial front runner Hillary Clinton facing questions over her use of a private email system. The secretary of state signed a statement over the weekend over penalty of perjury that she has turned over to the government all of the emails that were federal records. The statement, which the state department submitted to a federal court monday, match what is she and her campaign have said for months about her exclusive use of a private email account and server to conduct business. So the latest on that from the Washington Post this morning. And then there is also this in politics courtesy of the nuseum here in washington from the Atlanta Journal constitution, cruz keeps focus on the south. Texas u. S. Senator ted cruz was flocked after a solemn Prayer Service in birmingham suburbs. Ovations greeted him long before he took the stage at a standing room rally and more than 1,000 people crammed into a town hall to eat free ice cream and hear him speak. Its the biggest commitment yet of any president ial candidate to the s. E. C. Primary. The collection of mostly Southern States voting as a bloc on march 1st. By the way, also jeb bush is going to be talking this evening in california. Hell be giving a Foreign Policy speech. Well have coverage of that. Itll be airing at 11 00 p. M. Eastern time, then 8 00 p. M. On the pacific. Politico has a story this morning with the headline that jeb bush is expected to assail clinton and obama on iraq. He will ask, where was the secretary of state clinton in all of this . So tune in if youre interested in that. 11 00 p. M. Eastern time. Part of our road to the white house coverage here on cspan. Then heres this headline in the chicago sun times. Its about aaron schock. Many of you know that name. The illinois congressman who was forced to step down. Schock to the federal government, lets make a deal. Lynn sweet reporting that documents show the former congressman has been seeking immunity from prosecutors. Also another headline for you this morning. This is one many of you are familiar with. Usa today, a state of emergency has been declared in ferguson as violence erupts there in that city. Police in st. Louis on monday. You can see the picture here. Arrested dozens of people during protests at a courthouse. The demonstrations were part of events dubbed moralmonday. Clergy members prayed in front of the building and spread oil on it saying they were anointing it. Author and activist cornel west along with other prominent protesters arrested at the demonstration. West and others jumped over the metal barricades around the building and walked toward officers guarding it. The protesters sat in front of the buildings entrance and police surrounded the group. Overnight in ferguson, at least three people were shot and four arrested as peaceful protests became violent. A young man shot there in that city as well. So state of emergency declared in ferguson. Weve been talking about Student Loan Debt in this country, asking all of you to tell us your experience with it. We divided the lines. If you have Student Loan Debt, dial in at 2027488000. If youve paid off those loans, dial in at 2027488001. Lets go to oregon. Eugene, no Student Loans. Caller good morning. Glad to be on the program. First of all, no Student Loan Debt. No student should have to pay for going to college. The English Program they had where any kid could go to school was great. I think theyve changed it a little bit now. Over in cuba, students get a chance to go to School Without having to pay, and theyre very educated. So we, as being one of the leading countries in the world, the richest country in the world, should not have our students burdened down with all of this debt. We sit here and talk about some kids shouldnt go to college. Thats a lie. Every kid should have the ability to go to college. College is about expanding your horizons, about getting to know the arts, to appreciate the interactivity with other people from other cultures. Vocation is about work. So the two can go together, but you dont want to eliminate one for the other. So when you hear people talking about they shouldnt some people shouldnt go to college, that is a racist because i came up during a time when they said the same exact thing back in the 60s. You got certain people that need to go do plumbing work and certain people that need to go do brick laying. But guess what . We had some of the best educated carpenters, plumbers, and mechanics because we were able to go to college, get an education, and then enhance our vocation. So i want our country to realize and people stop talking about because everybody out there talking has a son, a grandson, a niece, a daughter that needs education. Okay, eugene. Got your point. Eugene arguing for free college education. Listen to what Bernie Sanders, senator from vermont, running for the democratic nomination, had to say on this recently. I have introduced legislation and will fight as president of the United States to make certain that every Public College and university in america is tuition free. [ cheers and applause ] we must also significantly reduce student debt. It is insane that people in this room are paying 8 , 9 , 10 Interest Rates on student debt when you could refinance your home for 2 or 3 . Senator Bernie Sanders on this issue of Student Loan Debt. By the way, the hill newspaper with this headline. Sandsers pulls crowd of 27,500 people in los angeles. Large crowds turning out for the independent senator from vermont. Marie in santa ana, california. You paid off those Student Loans. What was it like . Caller i attended college in the late 60s as well as my husband. Neither of us accrued debt for our bachelors degrees. My husband went to medical school. We did borrow money for medical school. My profession is im an educational therapist. I work with students who have learning difficulties. Here in california students must graduate in the top third of their High School Classes in order to attend public universities. The fact is, here in california one out of four of them have to take remedial classes. They have to pay tuition for those remedial classes. Yet, those classes do not apply toward their degrees. I believe what we need to do is we need to reform our k12 school systems. This is terrible. Also, the situation is even worse for Community College students. If you look at the data, which i keep track of, over 50 of the students who attend Community Colleges also have to take remedial classes. In english, reading, and math. Our k12 system is increasing the cost of Higher Education. Okay, marie. Mick in powell, ohio. No Student Loans. Good morning. Caller hi. Thanks for your time. I have no Student Loans. I was not in the position to attend college in the 70s when i got out of high school. As now, theres an enormous discrepancy Higher Education, as it exists right now, is a subsidy for the upper middle class families who are in the position to send their children to school at the expense of the less fortunate. I believe that a person who wants to gets a degree in entomology, modern dance should be allowed to do that. But that they should bear the consequences of the decision they made and pay the loans that they took in order to subsidize that curiosity, as reagan put it, that intellectual going to grade 1 through 12. Every time i turn around, theyre asking for School Supplies and a backpack that im supposed to supply them with. How am i supposed to have any faith in the system if im supposed to be supporting these people all the way through their Higher Education . And then even now, youre saying were not they have to pay their debt after 20 years. What kind of education is that, that you dont have to pay for something you signed up for . All right. Thanks, donald. On twitter, heres some reaction from our viewers. One person says, Student Loans shouldnt have a high interest fee. There shouldnt be big profits from this as if a business or a mortgage loan. Then you have this from one of our viewers. I recommend going to a vocational school. I have a basw, and most jobs require a masters. I dont want to pay Student Loans forever. Then elliott says, government should only give grants for degrees and certificates that guarantee employment. Jim in new york, youve paid off those loans. Good morning to you. Caller hello . Jim, youre on the air. Caller oh, firsttime caller. In terms of not having any loans, my parents came out of the depression and world war ii. What they taught us was to pay your bills and then save, save, save. Based on that, they were able to get me through college with no loans. I had one son under the clinton years. I had saved up enough money, so i kind of would what i was able to do is take out a loan while i was making money on our investments and then when the loan came due, pay the whole thing off. Okay. Caller if i had more than one kid, then there would have been big troubles. I think the problem also is with the colleges. You know, they always say people graduate and they have 88 or whatever of success rate. My son, having gone through johnson and wales for a business degree now is a waiter. Hes a waiter at the same job he was at when he was getting these degrees. He cant find a job now at this point. Last thing i just wanted to say, with my mother, where we grew up, she was a member of the school board forever and a day. Her theory was not everyone should have to go to college. Vocational schools were underrated, and that was one of her big pushes. She was able to get where we were at. All right, jim. Some other quick headlines for you as well. Another one on campaign 2016. Governor rick terry stops paying his staff as fundraising has faltered. He stopped paying his staff at the National Headquarters in austin as well as in early caucus and primary states of iowa and south carolina. According to a republican familiar with the campaign, the Campaign Manager told Staff Members friday, the day after the first republican president ial debate, that theyd no longer be paid and were free to seek other jobs. So far, most aides have stuck with perry. Then this on the front of the wall street journal this morning on china. Wall street journal reporting that china acts to devalue its currency. Chinas central bank devalued its tightly controlled currency tuesday at the worlds second largest economy continues to sputter. In an apparent effort to blunt criticism over chinas Exchange Rate policy, the peoples bank of china took the step with an eye toward making the currency value more market based. Midpoint or fixing will now be based on how it closes in the previous trading session. Until now, the fixing had been entirely determined by the central bank itself. Then theres also this from the New York Times this morning. The trial for that Washington Post reporter being held in iran is over. A verdict is expected soon for the reporter. And then theres this from the business and tech section of the wall street journal this morning. Startups vie to build an uber for health care. Listen to this. This app, called heal, is one of several startups putting a hiketech spin on oldfashioned house calls or inperson visits since they can take place anywhere. The Services Provide a range of nonemergency medical care from giving flu shots to treating strep throat and treating lacerations. The Companies Use slightly different models. Pager in new york city dispatches doctors or nurse p k practitioners via uber for 200. Another promises to get a doctor to your sofa in under an hour for 99. A medical assistant goes along to do the driving and the parking. So theres these apps that are starting up across the country where a doctor is on demand and will come to your house. They dont take insurance, but you can either pay out of your Health Savings accounts for these services or submit the bill to your insurance company. Kaitlin in virginia. You have Student Loan Debt. Good morning to you. Go ahead. Caller good morning. Yes, i graduated college in 2013 from Florida State university, and i have still got 30,000 in debt. I deferred loan payments for about a year and then realized how much interest had accrued. For the last several month, ive been paying about 350 a month in Student Loans. You know, it doesnt give me an opportunity to save, to get ahead in the game as an adult. I really think what they need to do is more education about when you seek out Student Loans. When i was in school, you know, theres a day where everyone gets Financial Aid sent into their bank account, thousands of dollars. And you dont really understand the consequences of it and what youll be paying after school. Yeah, how old are you . Caller 24. 24. And how much do you have in Student Loan Debt . Caller about 30,000. And it was about 35,000. Okay. So you pay about 350 a month. What does that mean for your monthly bills . How much of that eats up your income . Caller oh, its all of my savings. I cant manage to save any money, really, by paying off these loans. If i want to get another car, its going to be hard to do that. Id like to buy a home im living in right now, put money towards a mortgage instead of rent. Its going to be hard to do that to, you know, save enough for a down payment. How much is your rent . Caller 1,000 a month. And i share that with a roommate. So 1,000 split between the two of you . Caller yeah. All right. Caller not including bills and whatnot. Right. So your student loan is almost as much as your rent payment. Caller yeah, kind of, you know. Right. Kaitlin, 24 years old in virginia, appreciate the phone call. Today starting at 1 00 eastern, a series of programs from the perspectives of journalists. How they handle themself when captured abroad with an indepth visual presentation by a veteran correspondent whos based in afghanistan. And learn about the craft of investigative reporting. The cspan cities tour visits literary and Historic Sites across the country to hear from local historians, authors, and civic leaders. Every weekend on cspan2s book tv. And American History tv on cspan3. And this month with congress on its summer recess, you can find the cities tour on cspan every day at 6 00 eastern. Today, the literary life of lincoln, nebraska, including the letters of novelist willa. And a book about the removal of native American Children from their home. That starts at 6 00 eastern on cspan. More now from todays washington journal with a look at the federal governments home affordable Modification Program. Now joining us from new york this morning, gretchen morganson, back with us to talk about homeownership. A recent story, a slack lifeline for drowning homeowners. Gretchen, lets begin with this program that the federal government set up to help these homeowners. The home affordable Modification Program. What is it . You know, greta, this was the Signature Program that the Obama Administration wanted to put in place to help homeowners. It started in 2009. So we have a long, you know, kind of arc of performance here to evaluate it. As you remember, you know, in the crisis, the banks got huge, enormous bailouts. Homeowners were really kind of left struggling on their own. So the h. A. M. P. Program, as it was called, was designed to really kind of help them and combat the idea that only the banks got the bailout. So what weve been looking at recently is a report from the special Inspector General of the t. A. R. P. Program. She and her colleagues went back and analyzed how many banks turned down or what number of borrowers are turned down by the banks for the h. A. M. P. Program. The numbers were pretty startling. Yeah, and from your story, heres a quote from christy, special ig for this bank. We are constantly seeing problems with the way servicers are treating homeowners and not following the rules. I dont understand why there hasnt been a stronger policing from the treasury on servicers. Whats going on . Well, i dont know if you remember this. I covered the mortgage business, you know, what is going on . I covered the mortgages from the beginning of the crisis, and the banks and the servicers, they are the ones that really operate the behindthescenes administrative aspect of a mortgage. Those banks were woefully unprepared for the foreclosure crisis. Then we learned how they were making up documents and they were creating documents and they were robo signed almost automatically, so its not as if this is a total surprise, and during the foreclosure crisis, before we saw problems with home servicers, and this was supposed to help them, and instead of throwing them a lifeline its really throwing them an anchor and its not that helpful, as it turns out. You profile in your story, lucy circle. What was her experience . Lucy had an experience she was in vermont and her experience, i think, fairly common. She tried to get a loan modification, and she wanted to get the terms of her mortgage changed so she could afford it, and she became disabled and could no longer work and was getting Disability Insurance and she had enough to make a mortgage payment slightly lower than the one she had previously, and she got the run around, send the documents and rescind the documents, and it did not occur as smoothly as the program had been advertised and she had to enlist of help of a legal aid lawyer, and a lot of homeowners had to do that to fight on their behalf because you cant fight alone, and its hard to go against big organizations that put off help to the borrower. Its uncertain to me, and as i said in the article you cant underestimate the potential for incompetence in the organizations, but what one of the lawyers told me when i was writing the story, there are benefits to the banks if they hold off on giving a modification, and the foreclosure fees rise and the interests accrued, so there is a benefit to set it off, and i dont know if thats what is going on but its a possibility. Lucy is one of how many that have had this experience . Well, you know, its interesting, the headline in the report or one of the headlines in this special Inspector General report was that 4 million barrowers have been rejected for Loan Modifications by the banks operating the program, and thats kind of an ironic or paradoxal number because that was the number that the administration said would be helped by the program. Theres an estimate of roughly 890,000 people currently in Modification Programs, so thats far less than the 4 million that the program had set up to help. Do the banks lose under this Modification Program . The banks make money under the Modification Program. Its not a lot of money. Its an incremental type of a fee income, and so its something that they are able to volunteer to do, they dont have to do it, and the treasury did not require the banks to do it, which was another interesting element, greta, because at the time a lot of the banks were receiving billions from the taxpayer and yet the treasury did not require them to participate in the program for main street, so there were flaws from the beginning, and the program, the way it was set up, and it appears pretty evident its certainly not meeting its goals. Before we get to calls, how do people qualify for the program . Can anybody who says the house is not worth what i paid for it . There are a lot of rules, obviously, in the rule book for who qualifies for a rule modification under the program, but the best thing a borrower can do is apply and get through the maze of requirements. If you are in a state where it is considered a where the courts have to oversee foreclosures, then you are in a better position because the courts will monitor how the bank is operating, and you will have help navigating, and then finding out if you meet the requirements, there are requirements, for instance, that your debt to income cant exceed for you to get one of these loan mods, so its a strict set of rules but a lot of borrowers could certainly get into the program, but it does seem as though they are being held off and stonewalled. Eric is up first in seattle. A democrat. You are on the air, good morning. Caller good morning. Lets go back to the very beginning. All of this started up on the Republican Administration during deregulation with the seagull, what it did, it allowed our commercial money to be used in investment banking. If you would separate these two, they would not have the money to gamble with, so what they would have to do then, they would have to scrutinize these mort eupblgs more in order for them to get any kind of money out of them, but once they bundle them its on the Insurance Companies to pay up the mortgages, and they dont care if the mortgages are paid or not, what led to this was the republicans deregulation. Thats what it goes to and nothing else. Thank you. All right, mrs. Morgenson . There was deregulation that emerged in 2008, and we had what was considered an innovations in mortgage products that were not regulated closely. The fdic was really the stand alone regulator who was trying hard to push back on the innovations that the banks were coming up with, and these were some of the crazy mortgages, like mortgage where you only had to pay the interest and not the principle, or a mortgage that ballooned at a certain point in time or whose Interest Rate went up, so these were create the programs that wall street and the banks came up with to try and allow they were called affordability products, meaning people that couldnt provide that much of a house could using these mortgages, and regulators were nowhere to be found on that tough, and they were not regulating that closely, and the fdic tried and it was pushed back by the Federal Reserve and it was very, very obvious to a lot of people that these loans would end up badly, so i agree there was a deregulatory element, a very big element involved in the crisis and how it came about. New york, peter, a republican, good morning. Caller good morning, ladies. Ms. Morgenson, i read your book and it was great and i would recommend it to anybody who wants to understand this. And republicans blame democrats and republicans bla, and democr blame republicans, and i believe they are both at fault. It created the incentive for banks to produce these sub prime mortgages to convert it into securities, and in 2003, president bush went to barney frank and chris dodd, the Financial Services committee and the Banking Committee that he thought there was a problem with fannie and freddie. Why didnt president bush reduce the mandates back to 3 in 2003 if he thought there was a problem . I asked peter wallenson that question and he couldnt give me an answer, so i would appreciate if you could enlighten me why, if president bush knew there was a problem, he continued president clintons policy on the private partnership . Thank you. I havent spoken to president bush on this so i would only be speculating of what was in his mind at the time he made that decision. I think we were in a moment of time where Home Ownership was something that everybody believed was a benefit to all levels of society, and that the goal of pushing Home Ownership, as bill clinton wanted to do in his partnership in 1995, pushing the levels of Home Ownership up to 70 , that was the goal, was across the board goal, and it was a republican goal and a democratic goal, and it was believed that that kind of a Home Ownership was good for society and certainly good for business, you know, the Construction Industry and the Insurance Industry and the banking industry, so much of our economy touches the Home Building Home Ownership business, and so it was deemed to be a winwinwin for everyone. If i were to speculate, my best guess was in 2003, or that is when we were sort of coming off the dotcom bust of the internet. I think probably there was a feeling that we didnt want to meddle anything that was this powerful a portion of the economy, so the push for Home Ownership continued and it really got to levels that were really unacceptable and really could not be sustained, and thats when, again, the crisis occurred. Clinton marilyn monroe. Caller how are you all today . Doing well, sir. Good. Caller i would love to give you my information offline because i think i am the perfect case study for everything you are talking about. When you talked about how they were just being uncooperative and hopefully i can get my story out in time, first it was countrywide, and i submitted all the documentation necessary, and got turned down and then countrywide was being bought out by bank of america and paperwork got lost and i had to submitted it again and submitted two different times in bank of america and still didnt get approved, and you talked about the rules of playing the game and what a lot of people dont know, the banks will take and put you on the repayment plan but you have to fail the reemployment plan before they put you on a better replayment, and i got put that got the principle reduction, but what they didnt tell you is that the amount that they forgive is considered w2 income. I had 116,000 principle reduction that got tacked on as a w2 money, and i owed 40,000 in taxes, and thats because i did it on my own this is crazy, and theres so much to it that could work if it was better explained, but its not better explained. All right. You did a good job of explaining it there, ill say that. Its unfortunate that homeowners like you dont have help in these convoluted arrangements. The banks have the upper hand because they are dealing with something they are familiar and have done it before and the homeowner is in the woods and its very, very tricky, and so many different rules to get through the maze and the thicket of these regulations. But sounds like you had a good outcome, and thats wonderful and glad to hear it, and there are a lot of people that did not have a good outcome and are still waiting and are still, sort of, you know, underwater and in a difficult situation. Its interesting, you know, i received an email from a reader who said to me, you know, why dont you just get over it, this is so long ago, 2008 happened, you know, what, seven years ago, and lets just move on and lets move on from this problem, and why do you keep writing about it . What i find interesting is a lot of people cant move on from it. There are still a lot of people in trouble with their homes. It has not gone away and we cant really move on. But i thought that was an interesting comment to come in, so theres a level of or a sector of people that say, lets move on from this. Gretchen morgenson, some areas of the country have seen Home Ownership pick back up to the prerecession level. Are there other areas where its still the value of the homes are still not what they were before the recession . Absolutely. I mean, there are tremendous theres tremendous losses still in, you know, arizona, las vegas, where the over building really was excessive, and where there was a lot of second homes, you know, a lot of speculation, and people were buying houses to flip them and not buying them to live in them, so in those areas, florida was a classic case. You still have a lot, a lot of pain and suffering. But, you know, even in areas where it didnt really go up, you know, you really are still in a stagnant environment, and Home Ownership, the levels of Home Ownership have come down dramatically, and, you know, for me, i think that thats beneficial before its not right for everybody to own a home. If you have to make these crazy loans, if you have to devise loans that are really toxic and end up being poisonous to get people into homes, then i think theres something wrong with that picture. Eric is watching us in georgia this morning, a democrat. You are on the air. Caller good morning to you both. Good morning. Caller my situation, this whole, um, you know, trying to get a reduction, we started right after i guess it was mac, and we went through them three or four times, and it was like a seminar and then they get, you know, four or five people to get on the stage, and they say all wonderful things like, they got their interests rate at 2 , and they also got, you know, a reduction in the loan, and its just it just isnt true. I am with bank of america, and i just want to tell you something, if you two wonderful people didnt know that in order to you to get any kind of into any type of program, to get help, they will tell you that you have to be at least three months behind. Lets take that point. Gretchen morgenson . This is an aspect of the loan modification process that has been very troubling, because what sometimes happens is the bank will take advantage of the fact they will tell you to be late, tell you not to pay, and then they will foreclose, and its really, really i have heard chapter and verse many, many stories of this type of a situation and it really is not the right approach to take, so that is something that is you really ought to question if thats the remedy that the bank is saying, again, these are very complex issues, a lot of legalities involved, and if you can try to go to a Legal Aid Organization which provides low costs or no costs, Legal Assistance to help you go through these programs. Is there supposed to be a federal agency that is your legal aid that is supposed to help you navigate this with the banks . They are a watchdog . Theres really not a watchdog. The treasury is supposed to police the program, the treasury is supposed to oversee it because the loan servicers, thats the treasury was the conduit for the program, and they were the ones that created the rules. But as Kristi Romero in the report and in her interview with me, she said there has been disturbed but there is not more policing of the kinds of problems that anybody who looks into this can see by not even scratching the surface. I was speaking with legal aid lawyers in new york city who were able to send me legal documents that showed the kind of stonewalling that borrowers have received in new york, and the only reason that this came out at all was because in new york, if you are going through a foreclosure, you have to have it over seen by the courts. Its a third of all the cases theres a legion of the cases where borrowers try and try and try again, and they are refused and turned down and stonewalled and its very disturbing to see how many cases like this there are. According to the special i. G. s report, 72 of the applicants were rejected. What were the reasons why . They will say things like the borrower did not put in the right paperwork or make the first payment and they essentially blame the borrower, and that would probably be true in some cases or many cases, but what we know in having investigated the mortgage servicers, and they paid 25 billion, and i think it was in 2011 over their faulty and, you know, robo signing practices where they were phoneying up documents to get a foreclosure through, we know there are problems in these organizations. It doesnt past muster to say its always the borrowers fault. Caller you actually just took the words out of my mouth. I live in charlotte, north carolina, and i have family members that worked for bank of america and some of them retired, and bank of america and other banks are always being vilified as the problem, and that in reality, folks should not the be getting loans in the first place, and the government had a policy that everybody should own a home, and i remember a time when you could just declare your income without any verification at all, and what happens is, folks get a mortgage, they dont pay their mortgage, they get their home foreclosed on and then its the banks fault. Its unfortunate that people cant pay their bills and i understand you have financial problems and lose jobs and everything, but its about accountability, i think. I lived in my home and always paid my mortgage, and if i couldnt own a home, and before i was in a position to own a home, i rented. All right. Well take his point. I know there was a lot of blame going around. But my feeling about the banks role in this program and crisis, they were supposed to be the prudent person in the room. They are the lender and they are supposed to be caring about the loan being repaid, and fur creating loans that are going to explode in their interests rate that are going to ask you to only pay the interests and not the principle, so if you are creating loans like that to put people in homes and you are profiting by creating those homes, then i think the banks need to take responsibility for those actions. The fact is the matter the banks could have checked whether a borrowers income was factual, but the banks never did check. When you take out a mortgage you have to sign a document that says the bank can go to the irs and check your income, and the fees were to rich and really key to the lack of whole accountability, and they shovelled the loans off to investors and they didnt have any skin in the game, so all they cared about was making the fees generating the mortgage and shoveling them off to somebody else and that person had to sustain the losses when the loans didnt get paid. I think there is blame to go around. I absolutely agree with that. But i think the person in the room that was supposed to be responsible was the banker, and they fell down on the job because they had no skin in the game and couldnt careless if the loans didnt get repaid. Sandra is watching, an independent. Good morning. Caller good morning. I have wells fargo who i have asked to turn around and make the payment for a different part of the month because our income had changed during the month, and we needed it moved over so we wouldnt have extra amount of money added on because we wanted to just the payment to be moved over until the 30th or the 29th of the month or Something Like that, because of the way our payments had changed. They did not go along with us, so we asked for the other thing, and they turned around and took 450 doing a hamburger loan and said we didnt qualify at the time because the house wasnt up to the money they wanted, and then we went to another bank and the other bank turned around and said, well, yeah, maybe we can do something, and next thing i know, they had a reason why they couldnt do it, yet they took 200 and something. Now we are in frannie and freddie, and they accepted us and i thought, well, i took it to the bank to find out if there are hidden things, and, oh, yeah, 6,000 and that was to write the loan, but they said the guy told me after i ripped up the papers, he called that day and he said, oh, what was wrong . I said, hey, 6,000, what is there . I havent got that money. That was going to be written into the loan. Where is the truth and why is all this money going out and why cant we were up to 6 . Were struggling, and there are three of us in one house right now, and there was four, and our incomes totaled 27 to 30,000. They wouldnt change the loan at all. Wells fargo. Wouldnt do anything. We have top credit. All right. Gretchen morgenson . Sandra, i would urge you do you have a Legal Aid Society or a probono Assistance Program in your area in massachusetts . I would urge you to go to somebody there to help you, and do not i repeat, do not go to one of the companies that claim to be helping you with h. A. M. P. And they are for Profit Companies that are damming homeowners, and it sounds like there may be a possibility that you could get a loan modification without having to pay the fees, and your point about the fees is very well taken, and thats what the banking business does nowadays. In the old days, you used to have a banker on the corner, and they would give a loan, and they believed in you and it was facetoface transaction and they expected you to pay it off and held it on their books, and now all the banks do is generate the fees and sell the loan to somebody else, and so the banker alone had the fees at heart, and thats why the fee system has really gotten, you know, a little bit out of control. Thats how they make their money. They dont make their money on the interests anymore, and that goes to somebody else, and thats the whole idea that the banks made loans and didnt care. Gretchen morgenson, tell us about these fees. How many fees . What are they charging . Oh, my gosh. Well, you know, an origination fee, you know, you have to pay probably for Legal Assistance for the bank, the banks lawyer, and if you are in foreclosure, there are driveby appraise annuappraises, and maintenance, they will charge you to mow the lawn and keep the property up, and theres a tremendous of bogus junk fees. What about simply trying to get a mortgage these days or refinancing . Are banks making money from the fee system as well . Definitely. Definitely. The application fee, and theres all kinds what you do when you get a mortgage you ask for a good faith estimate and that will tell you all the costs associated with getting that mortgage. There are a lot of them. I think its lyda in milford, connecticut, a democrat. Caller its linda. Good morning. Caller you are one of the reasons why i read the New York Times, you are my favorite columnishgrz columnist. Thank you. Caller my husband and i always have paid our bills and countrywide put us in a section of our company and it was bought out by bank of america, and then the next thing i noticed our mortgage check had not cleared one month and then two month and then i got a foreclosure letter. I did not know what to do. I panicked and called my congresswoman who put her Legal Department on it immediately. They stopped the foreclosure proceedings from being filed in the state of connecticut, so it saved me money, and they made me cancel both checks and go and get a bank check, and send it to bank of america immediately, and they also found that we had been over charged 1,300 in fees that they put a halt to so we didnt have to pay that, and we were paying that and they got us that refund, and then so we were just so fortunate that i picked up the phone and called my congresswoman that put her legal person on it. To the gentleman that called earlier that had the same cast of characters that we did, countrywide and then bank of america, and his income problem, tell him to call a lady that cspan has all the time on tv as the irs tax advocate. I cant remember her name. I love your show when she is on. Nina olson . Caller yes. Call the irs tax advocate and they will set up a plan for him on how to repay it and it will be done smoothly. He already pays for help for that, and its the people that cspan puts on tv and i thank you deeply for all the information, both from you, ms. Morgenson, and all the others. But tell them to call their Congress People and they have aides that will help them. I found out by mistake, but learn from me, your congressional representatives can move mountains for you. Okay, linda, well leave it there. Sounds like you had a great outcome, and happy to hear it, and i would agree as far as reaching out to your congressman, and thats a way to get some help, and congressmen do have legal aides to help their constituents. Again, your experience is so common that i think that when you have people who get rid of those problems, get rid of the 1,300 in junk fees, its really a wonderful story to hear, because i hear so much of the opposite. Barbara, washington, d. C. , a democrat. Good morning to you. Caller good morning. How are you both . Doing well. Go ahead with your question or comment. Caller i have a question. I was looking at getting a reverse mortgage on my house, and i was wondering how that lines up with a program like this h. A. M. P. You cant do a reverse mortgage in h. A. M. P. , i dont think. I am not the leading expert on it, but i dont think you can. If you need a loan modification, you should not be talking about a reverse mortgage, but if you are thinking of doing a reverse mortgage i would urge you to understand all of the fees associated with that mortgage. They do have to provide that information, so just make sure you are comfortable if you go forward with it, you are comfortable with the fees that you will be paying to put that mortgage on to your property. Well go next to louisiana. John, a republican. Good morning. Caller true story. 1981, i moved down to louisiana thanks to u. S. Air force and i owned a house in indiana, which stood vacant for two years, and i took a First Mortgage down here to build a house of 16 and a second mortgage of 19 . Now, in three years we, me and my wife, working two jobs finally got out of debt and unloaded the house in indiana, and lost all 40,000 i put in it and i asked for no help from anybody, because the way i see it if you cant afford it dont buy it. I would take the idea that the responsible person in the room is the person signing for the loan, and nobody put a gun to their head and made them sign that document. Responsibility and accountability that are big words that have been replaced by me and now. This all goes back to the Community Investment act of jimmy carters era, and the pie in the sky idea that everybody should own a home, thats a pipe dream. There are people that dont own homes, and its something called repb renters. I agree there should not be people that take on the immense responsible of a mortgage. I am for accountability and responsibility in all people, whether its the borrower or banker or the investor, all across the board people should take responsibility for their action. I think there are a lot of barrowers that did not understand what they were taking on, and yes, they did not have a gun to their head to take on the mortgage. As you remember, there was a mania going on, and house prices could never go down, so in addition to the borrower being responsible, the bank should have been responsible and the regulator should have been responsible for making sure the bank was responsible. Its not just i dont think that we are operating in a country where only the borrower has a responsibility. I think that responsibility should be shared by all the parties in the room, and the fact that the people who really won in this situation, which are both the banker and the regulators and the borrower is really lost, because when you have a foreclosure, your credit is ruined and you have no ability if you go bankrupt that lasts on your credit record for years, so the borrower gets really the hit there, they take the hit, and the banks got help from the government, and the regulators actually got promoted and more power in dodd frank. Something is wrong with that picture when the only person that took the hit was the borrower. Lets here from ray. An independent. Caller i am calling in reference to the lady from add aborough. I had wells fargo when i bought this house in 2000, and i had good credit and it was the first time i applied for a loan, and it was my familys home, my mother and father passed away and i bought it from my brothers and sisters, and i kept it for two years and then went to st. Annes credit union, a credit union, and right now i dropped it down to a 15 year at 3. 25 fixed. I pay a total of 710, and if this lady would go to st. Annes credit union in massachusetts, they would help her out, because that wells fargo, all they do is rip you off. I really hope that she does. Okay, ray, we will move on to paul in st. Louis, missouri. A democrat. Caller the only question that i have here is that fannie mae and freddie mac are they still considering principle reductions for their loans . Thank you very much. I am not sure. They might now be considering them but for many years they were not considering them because they were subject to a bailout in 2008, and so it was felt that they should not, you know, reduce the principle owed on mortgages because that would be a burden that would create losses for fannie and freddie which would then create losses for the taxpayer. That may be changing because the companies have become very profitable again starting in 2012, but i am not able to answer that question aauthoritati aauthoritatively, so sorry. Chris, a republican. Caller thank you for taking that call. I agree with the gentleman in louisiana, nobody held a gun to the heads of the people that thought they would get rich off of them. The people in the room should be responsible, but i was not in the room, and i am paying higher taxes. This is a free market economy. Were big boys and girls. Take your hit. Thats all it comes down to. If you cant afford it, you cant afford it, move on. I cant get on the property ladder because its tightend up what do you mean, chris . You cant buy a house right now . We wont find out because chris isnt there anymore. What is going on now in the Housing Market today because of what happened . I would like to respond to his comment about that borrowers should take the hit. He made a excellent point. The banks got bailed out and they didnt take the hit and the Share Holders took the hit, and you did not see a manager be removed because of the huge losses that were encountered in 2008 and 2009 and beyond, and the borrowers should not should take the hit, i agree, and the bailout money that went to the banks was something that allowed them not to take the hit, so i think thats a disparity there that really he should examine. As far as what is happening in the market right now, there are pockets of very hot markets. New york city, probably washington, d. C. As well, but there still is a sense that the market has not recovered, and its very difficult to get a mortgage still to this day, and you have to have perfect credit, a great credit score and no blemishes on your credit record, so its very difficult for people to borrow and renegotiate their loans and thats having a stagnating impact on wide slots of the countrys Housing Market. Rose, good morning, a republican. You are on the air. I am the victim of predatory lending. I purchased a house for 58,000, a sunny day, purchased the house for 18,000, and my house is now worth 26,000. I am going through a lot with this house, and i dont know what to do with it. I tried getting a loan modification, but i was told i need to just try to get out of the loan. Time doesnt permit me to go into all the details that i could tell you, but what do you suggest me to do . Thank you, and i will take my answer over the phone. All right. Hang on the line and listen through your phone. Gretchen morgenson . Sounds like the house had gone up in value which is a very good thing for this person, for rose, and she should maybe try to sell the house if it has gone up in value and capitalize on it and take that profit, if i am not understanding that correctly and it has gone down in value and its stagnant and she needs a loan modification, i would go to try and find legal Aid Assistance to maneuver and navigate that, because its a complex process. Nancy from washington, a democrat. Good morning. Caller good morning. I just wanted to share an experience similar to one of your other callers in maryland with the home affordable Modification Program. I was part of a predator lending with countrywide, when countrywide went down, my loan was sold to bank of america, and i went through the Modification Program, and i had similar experiences and i was not behind in my mortgage, but i was having a financial difficulties, and each time i would do that, my papers would get lost, they said they never received them, i kept on, did it for about three times, and this was over a years period, and finally somebody told me to call fannie mae because my house is a fannie mae house and i went straight to fannie mae, and i didnt have to deal with bang of america again and i got my modification in a short time. Thats excellent. Very happy to hear that. That sounds like a great approach. Honestly, go directly to fannie mae and then you circumvent all the nightmare people are going through when they are trying to deal with the banks. We will have to leave it there, gretchen morgenson. Always appreciate your time talking to our viewers this morning on this issue and other financial issues. Gretchen morgenson, you can follow her on twitter gmorgenson, and you can follow her reporting. Have a good day. On capitol hill today a discussion about credit card security and a look at the differences between chip and pin technology, and better protecting against fraud and identity theft, and the discussion hosting will be live at noon at cspan 2. And then president obama unveiled a new plan last week as part of the Climate Change initiative. You can watch that at 12 15 on cspan. Back to washington journal and a segment on Health Implications about alcoholrelated birth disorders among teenagers. Joining me is the former minnesota first lady and also the president and founder of the Minnesota Association on fetal alcohol syndrome. What is it . First i want to thank cspan for bringing this issue before your viewing public. Its a significant issue. In 2004 there was a group that got together in washington, d. C. And they came up with the term fetal alcohol spectrum disorders, and its not a diagnostic term but it describes what happens to a babys brain during pregnancy and the problems that that child will have. Now, under that descriptive term, there still is fetal alcohol syndrome, and this is a field with acronyms so hopefully we wont confuse the viewing public. Simply spoken, its damage to the babys brain during pregnancy, which and the babys brain is developing all throughout pregnancy, so any alcohol during that period of time will cause harm to the brain. Unfortunately, its an under recognized disability, but its the leading cause of Developmental Disabilities and leading disabilities in the United States and around the world, and its more common, were finding its more common prevalence than autism, and recent studies are showing that between 2 and 5 nationwide, so theres a lot of concern. I have had this concern for many years. Yeah, you have been looking at this for many years, but how can you know that its a problem . What shows up . Beyond the obvious, but how do you know its a problem . How can you test for it . Okay. Those are all very good questions and very complicated questions. I think if your viewers know anything about this, they are aware of fas, and its the face of f. A. S. , and thats for the first trimester. We try to get focused away from the facial characteristics, but its an actual medical diagnose, and its the small eyes and thin area and a thin upper lip and those can be measured. The brain damage is really what is causing these children difficulty, and that shows in a lot of Mental Health diagnoses, adhd is probably one of the most common diagnoses a child will receive with damage to the brain, and they have memory problems, and what is most important is the executive functioning, which is the frontal cortex of the brain, and thats what gives us the ability to thick before we act, so thats what happens to a lot of kids in the juvenile Justice System, they are impulsive and have learning problems, so they dont learn from their mistakes. I think the incidents in the juvenile Justice System is a lot larger than what we what has we dont identify them in the juvenile Justice System at this present time. 60 12 and older have been charged with crime, and 35 have been in jail or prison at some point and 35 had drug and alcohol problem, and 79 of the adults had employment problems, and 45 engaged in inappropriate sexual behavior. What you are saying, then, this stays with a child throughout life . This is a permanent disability. The statistics you were quoting was from a secondary study that was done in the 90s and updated this decade, and it showed there were 415 individuals with it that they looked at what were the disabilities that occurred because of the primary disability, which was the brain damage. You showed those statistics. What was important about that study is all of the people there were getting Mental Health services and its not like they are not having problems, they are, we are just not understanding the root of their problems. When we understand the root of their problems, then its much easier to deal with them, and that study also showed that those that are diagnosed early, you know, age 6 or below will fair much better, and those that have the facial features, even though they have a lower cognitive ability, they will also do better because they are recognized. Its interesting, and i was thinking about this before i came on, and you know, theres a lot of attention over autism, and i had some kids, and they were also recognized and we try to divert them as much as we could out of the juvenile Justice System, and thats not what is happening with this population, because its an invisible disability, because those that have the facial features and growth deficiencies, they are the small percentage. The ones that have the brain damage is, you know, ten times more than those that just have the facial features. Were talking about fetal alcohol disorders in the courts, and we are talking and taking your comments and questions. Start dialing in now and we will get to your questions and comments on fetal alcohol spectrum disorder. How did you get an interests in this . Well, it was while i was in Juvenile Court and while i was first lady, i saw kids that had that came from families with Substance Abuse problems. When you get into a system, you understand whats bringing a lot of people into the systems, and Substance Abuse is a huge problem, and we all know that alcohol is the most commonly used drug, and so there were a lot of kids coming from Substance Abuse problems, and they had various Mental Health diagnoses, conduct disorder and oppositional defiant disorder, and adhd, and there was a study over a year, and 75 came from families with Substance Abuse problems and they had all of the Mental Health issues, and i remember reading psychological evaluations, because thats what we as a judicial officer figure out to do with the kids, and they would talk about, you know, did the child have brain trauma after birth, but there was never the question of perhaps having any kind of brain damage prior to birth. I just started educating myself and one of the first books that i read was Michael Doris book, and if anybody knows about f. A. S. Was Michael Doris, who also was from minnesota, and we learned about his son, adam, and he had f. A. S. , and he was disabled, so i learned that, and then one of the authors of the secondary disability study as well as on the first team that diagnosed the first child back in the early 70s, and i read her book on secondary disabilities, and all of a sudden i just started to think, oh, my god, we are missing so many kids in our system because, you know, we look at the psychological evaluation and they dont have the questions that would lead us to believe that some child had fasd, so i started getting myself educated and i would come home and talk to arnie about it, and i thought this is something that the state of minnesota really needed to take a look at. I was chair of a Governors Task force on fas, and we came up with a plan. One thing i wanted to do is get out into the field and see if what i was seeing in the courts was similar out in minnesota, and we had nine public hearings, and it did confirm what i was seeing, there was Substance Abuse that was huge, and alcohol is the most common substance and a lot of these kids have these disabilities. Now, you have to get a diagnosis, and its a complicated diagnosis and expensive diagnosis, but when you look at the costs of these kids, to me its not that expensi expensive. They do neuro psych tests, and its a daylong procedure, and they talk to the parents about the behavior problems, so its its something that i felt we needed to focus on in minnesota because you really need a visible population, and thats one thing we have created in minnesota, we have families, we have we have youth and they are owning their diagnosis and understanding the diagnosis, and the parents are understanding it and its making a lot of difference in how these children fair as they go through, you know, their school years and into adulthood. We will get our viewers involved. Iris is first in michigan, an independent caller. Caller listen, i think one of the best indicators is the passive attitude, unemotional, whatever, thank you for your sacrifice oh, well move on, and not sure where she was going with that. Do you have some thoughts . I was think she was trying to describe what she has seen in this population. Why do you think that is . What about what she said is reflective in this population . Well, i guess i was not quite sure what she meant by passive attitude . I must say that each child is different and thats why you need to get the particular diagnostic evaluation and thats what is important to professionals and people, and we dont want to generalize, but i think the executive functioning skills are critical. Thats what you and i did to prepare for today. We looked we get information and it gets into our brain and then we prepare, but these kids, you know, they have a hard time doing that. In fact, studies are showing that when you have them doing various tasks, they can hookup these mris and they can see these kids take a lot more brain energy to do the same amount of tasks, so they are exhausted from trying to do the same thing, and a lot of them, thats where the emotional and behaviors come out. Good morning, question or comment. You are on the air. Caller i had a comment about the situation is going unnoticed and a lot of these kids end up in the youth they are ending up in trouble and its going unnoticed and they are just being locked away, and thats an issue here in washington, d. C. Susan carlson, how are these kids being treated . If you dont know their behavior is related to alcohol as an infant or in the womb, how do you treat them . Those are a couple of different questions. The first one, i think, was really important and its that they are not being recognized. I just returned from from a conference, National Conference of juvenile and family court judges. Thats the one thing that really needs to happen. We need to start asking the question about prenatal alcohol exposure anytime a youth comes into the juvenile system or Child Protection system. We dont do that. Once you can get the prenatal alcohol exposure history and then you can begin to unravel if they have these behavior problems, if they have these learning problems and attention problems. It may not be just one thing but a constuilation of difficulties this child has then they can be referred for diagnostic evaluation. We did that and we screened those that scored high on what we call the macy, Mental Health screen, a little over 40 were positive for prenatal alcohol and a significant percent of those received a diagnosis, i think in the 70 . So we had to narrow our population. We were screening everybody and it was much too high. I think it is really an unrecognized disability. It doesnt surprise me because Substance Abuse in our systems is huge. It really is. We know Substance Abuse in our society or alcohol in our society is significant. And thats kind of the problem because its a legal drug. One of the most important things that i tell the judges that we are learning, the research is clear. This is not just something one of these new issues of the day. This has been over 40 years of research, Animal Research and Human Research that shows that there is this disability and its not just the face. Its the brain thats causing that. And so theres all this research that is showing that but we dont have the same research for the other drugs. I dont know if you you probably dont remember but the cocaine baby scare in the late 80s we are finding cocaine doesnt show the same amount of long term harm that alcohol is. We are finding that is true with a lot of other drugs. Alcohol really does cause more actual harm to the brain. Once you make the diagnosis how do you treat the kids in the juvenile Justice System . I think recognition that it is a disability and then those that are going to be treating the child have to understand what their disability is, their particular disability is and how that impacts what they are going to do. Just an example, i had a young man who i took a year off from the bench. This was one young man i had seen when i was on the bench and then i was the project director of our screening program. They came to me and said this kid is one of our most difficult kids. He has been in 11 or 12 treatments. We dont know what to do with him. We had him screened and he came back as partial. He had some physical characteristics but not all of them plus the neuro cognitive deficits. So his inhome family therapist had been trained in his disability. We sent him to a group home that also had been trained. When he got there he displayed a lot of behaviors but they understood what was causing those behaviors. So i think it is an understanding of people that are dealing with this population that makes a big difference. Anyway, he had no credits when he came to that group home, no high school credits. He got his ged. He worked in the community and the last i heard he wanted to go into the army. This was a young man that was not going to he was going to go down the path and end up in our prisons. But because of that intervention it made a difference. And im not saying his probation officer who was skeptical at first he said he came up to me later and said that was so much better for this young man. So i know that it can work. Maybe not in every case, but i have had parents, foster parents, adoptive parents come up to me and thank me. Its kind of like a parent you have a road map for chicago and you are in st. Louis, missouri. How can you navigate missouri having a road map of chicago. That is kind of what this is like beginning to understand what the disability is. Joe in atlanta, a republican. Caller gretta, you look great. Thanks for taking my call. My question if you, does planned parenthood help with this kind of thing . Does planned parenthood help mothers with helping children with the fetal syndrome thing. Are you guys going to have donald trump or do something with the president ial debate . I would like to see you do that . Go to our website on the last question. We have been interviewing several of the candidates. You can find the interviews there. Susan carlson . Thats an interesting question. What i would say is i think planned parenthood helping women on Birth Control will be a significant piece in preventing women from getting pregnant particularly those women who are at risk and have Substance Abuse problems. So in that respect i think they can provide a valuable service. And that is not just drinking during pregnancy but preventing pregnancy. Good question. Mary ann in virginia, independent. Caller thank you for bringing this issue to the forefront. My son who is 20 had fetal alcohol syndrome. He is adopted. It was really a nightmare raising him. He is very severely impacted. He is adhd, dyslexic. He cant handle money, been arrested three times and is an addict. My question is, all these [ inaudible ] none of the doctors or very few doctors, psychologists, teachers or principals that we dealt with know about this fetal alcohol syndrome. How can we get the word out that what this is and how to treat these folks . I think thats an excellent question. I am very hopeful that in the past couple of years we have seen remarkable changes on the National Level with regard to this issue that i think its going to make a huge difference. The first one is the American Academy of pediatrics. They have developed a tool for pediatricians to help with recognizing and getting these kids diagnosed. The second one these were a result of a committee that i am on, a federal committee out of the niaaa. This group has dealt with a lot of these issues. And i think whats going to happen with recognition in the Mental Health field is going to be huge. That was the insertion of a new acronym neuro Behavioral Development with prenatal alcohol exposure. That was put in the new diagnostic manual that Mental Health therapists use. It is in the appendix and puts in a code which is payment for services. So i think now the Mental Health practitioners are going to start recognizing it. Finally, one of the issues that im going to be working on and i would welcome your viewer that just called, we are going to try to get fasd into the idea for special ed. Autism is in there and fasd is not. A lot of youth with fasd are in special ed but different categories and there is not specific training. If you put it in there will have to be specific training on how the educators deal with youth with fasd. They are put into emotional behavior disorder and the treatments will not work for these youth. Susan carlson, have there been tests done on how much alcohol is problematic . Of course, women are told when they get pregnant not to drink by their doctors, but there was a study a couple of years ago that found it was fine for women to drink moderately or one drink or Something Like that. Do we know that women should not be drinking when they are pregnant, period . Well, that i think is unfortunate that we as a society have just said that there is a lot of mixed messages that women get about use of alcohol during pregnancy. But i think the study you are referring to is out of denmark. Unfortunately, they did not actually say that you can drink and the Surgeon General in 1981 when the first Surgeon General said women should not drink during pregnancy. Then it was reissued in 2005. So the message is that no you should not drink. I like to equate it to if you want to have a drink during pregnancy would you give