Members call out Obama on housing, Social Security

On April 9, a leadership team of CCI members held meetings with both Assistant Attorney General Patrick Madigan and Troy Price, the Executive Director of the Iowa Democratic Party. We had two very clear messages for them to deliver to President Obama - he must get serious about replacing Ed DeMarco as the director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency(FHFA) and he needs to immediately reverse course on proposing cuts to Social Security.The Iowa Attorney General's Office has worked hard to address abuses in the mortgage servicing industry and pushed for servicers to reduce principal on homes that are "underwater" - more is owed than what the house is worth.  Principal reduction is a common sense measure that would help keep people in their homes, save taxpayer money, and jump start the sluggish economy.Standing in the way of any meaningful principal reduction is a man by the name of Ed DeMarco who oversees loans held by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.  It is in everyone's best interest for this man to be replaced by someone who will move quickly to reduce principal on underwater homeowners.  And while we all must keep up the grassroots pressure on the Obama administration, we wanted to know we had another messenger who knows the ins and outs of principal reduction and the servicing industry - Attorney General Miller and his staff.Following a productive meeting with Patrick Madigan, the Assistant Attorney General, members dropped by the Iowa Democratic Party headquarters to deliver the same message about Ed DeMarco as well as our shock that President Obama would willingly put cuts to Social Security in his budget to be unveiled on April 10.President Obama has proposed to switch to the "chained CPI" as a way to calculate cost of living adjustments for recipients of Social Security.  The ugly truth is that the chained CPI is a benefit cut, pure and simple, and affects current recipients as well as future retirees.  This is even more insulting given the fact that Social Security has not, and cannot, contribute to the federal deficit.We'll continue to elevate these important issues with the media, elected officials, party leaders and the general public until we get assurance that policy makers are doing right by the American people when it comes to housing and retirement security.  And as long as Ed DeMarco remains at FHFA and Obama pursues the chained CPI for Social Security, we will not remain silent.