February 16th, 2010 by Reed Allmand 
President Obama’s State of The Union speech, addressed many issues facing Americans today. One of those issues was the need of America’s banking institutions to repay the American taxpayer for bailing them out of their self created financial mess when many of them were facing the possibility of liquidation in bankruptcy.
The President said:
So I supported the last administration’s efforts to create the financial rescue program. And when we took that program over, we made it more transparent and more accountable. And as a result, the markets are now stabilized, and we’ve recovered most of the money we spent on the banks. Most but not all.
To recover the rest, I’ve proposed a fee on the biggest banks. Now, I know Wall Street isn’t keen on this idea. But if these firms can afford to hand out big bonuses again, they can afford a modest fee to pay back the taxpayers who rescued them in their time of need.
I hope that President Obama and his taskforce will take the time to consider the need to parlay some of that money into helping homeowners facing foreclosure. Many homeowners facing foreclosure don’t have the opportunity to save their homes in bankruptcy because many of those same bailed out bankers lobbied to stop them saying that the proposed bankruptcy legislation would destroy the housing and mortgage industry. But the irony is that the banks are the primary reason why we are facing this foreclosure crisis in the first place. They are the primary reason so many Americans facing foreclosure need to file bankruptcy. American homeowners put their faith in our financial institutions and were betrayed. They were betrayed every time a homeowner was put into a toxic mortgage. They were betrayed every time a homeowner lost their home to foreclosure because they could not qualify for the government supported foreclosure prevention program. We need to make sure that any fees collected from banks on behalf of the American taxpayer are used to help Americans prevent foreclosure.
About Reed Allmand
Allmand's vision is rooted in his own financially precarious childhood in Abilene "My father always had difficulty holding a job and supporting our family, so after my parents divorced when I was 12, my sister and I got jobs to help make ends meet," he recalls. "I remember what it felt like as a child to worry that our car would be repossessed or home foreclosed on."
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