Billions for Bankers, Nothing for the Housing
Good Thing We Have Deficit Hawks in Congress:
The tenants were all living low-rent under a program that’s beginning to expire – but had been promised they could still qualify for a federal Section 8 rent subsidy.
But this week, when many of them began to show up at New York City Housing Authority offices, which accepts the vouchers and administers the subsidy, they were told the program was kaput….
NYCHA Chairman John Rhea Thursday blamed the move – which could push thousands into the city’s already crowded shelters – on Congress, a lower-than-usual attrition rate in the program and unprecedented demand….
More than half the vouchers – 1,833 – had been given to families and individuals who were once homeless.
Rhea, a former investment banker who took over the agency this year, said Congress didn’t set aside enough money to run the program through the end of the year.
Congress took $58 million from the authority in May from funds that were earmarked for Section 8, Rhea said. [link to Rhea appointment added]
Good to see responsible budgeting only means putting 3,000 families out on the streets just in time for the first big snowstorm of the year.
The US senate is proving that “liberty” and “pursuit of happiness” are for the 1% richest. The US exists for the rich.
The mass are either cottage share croppers or poor.
‘A graduate of Wesleyan University who also holds a Masters of Business Administration from the Harvard Business School, Chairman Rhea began his career in the Fixed Income Division of PaineWebber Inc. He most recently served as Managing Director and Co-Head of Global Consumer/Retail Group at Barclays Capital (formerly Lehman Brothers) managing strategy and budget for one of the largest industry sector teams in investment banking.’
Maybe his buddies could help out. $58 million is a rounding error for Wall St. bonuses this year and, it’s tax deductible.
I have come to hate the democratic party as much as the republican party. Its very depressing. For the first time in my life I do not care about politics. And frankly, if there is ever a break down in social order I will gleefully help destroy the property of the rich elite.
I always knew, when the bills come due after all the tax breaks for the upper few percent they will make the middleclass pay. All the years we had a less vibsible shrinking of the middleclass, now the accumulated effect begins to show. Common sense told us, you can’t cut taxes and get more revenue. The purpose of it all was to cut on service to the people. David Stockman said so many years ago.
How willingly the Democrats clean up the mess, they know what they must do to get the corporate elits Mammon, health insurance reform is just now showing us who the masters are. Nothing will change without their approval. There really is no point to vote, nothing of Democracy left anyway.
A brief study of the serf system is enlightening.
As long as you, the serf, played their game and suffered their exploitation to keep their war horses and their over weight knights in fodder you could keep your slim existence in their cottage.
Once you stepped outside their mold you became outlaw.
Relegated to the forests and the help of the likes of Robin Hood.
How little is changed, including the right wing religious zealots doing their traditional job of keeping the masses exploited.
Be exploited for their chuches, too.
The oldest and most violated “moral” code: Do no harm.