“Los Angeles (AP) – More than 1 million American households are likely to lose their homes to foreclosure this year, as lenders work their way through a huge backlog of borrowers who have fallen behind on their loans.

“Nearly 528,000 homes were taken over by lenders in the first six months of the year, a rate that is on track to eclipse the more than 900,000 homes repossessed in 2009, according to data released Thursday by Realty Trac, a foreclosure listing service.

“‘That would be unprecedented,’ said Rick Sharga, a senior vice president at Realty Trac. By comparison, lenders have historically taken over about 100,000 homes a year, Sharga said …

“The pace at which new homes falling behind in payments are entering the foreclosure process has slowed as banks continue to let delinquent borrowers stay longer in their homes rather than adding to the glut of foreclosed properties on the market. At the same time, lenders have stepped up repossessions in an effort to clear out the backlog of distressed inventory on their books …

“In all, about 1.7 million homeowners received a foreclosure-related warning between January and June. That translates to one in 78 U.S. homes …

“The company says more than 7.3 million homes are in some stage of delinquency.”-

Do you get the feeling that there’s some kind of a connection between being unemployed and falling behind in your mortgage payments? Do you suppose that emphasizing job creation instead of “balanced budgets”, might be the proper way for Washington to end this “recession”?

“Suddenly, creating jobs is out, inflicting pain is in. Condemning deficits and refusing to help a struggling economy has become the new fashion everywhere, including the United States where 52 Senators voted against extending aid to the unemployed despite the highest rate of long-term joblessness since the 1930s.” – Paul Krugman

Among our elected representatives, many self-described deficit hawks are hypocrites. They’re eager to slash benefits for those in need but their concerns about red ink vanish when it comes to tax breaks for the wealthy. Like Senator Ben Nelson, for example, who sanctimoniously declared that we can’t afford $ 77 billion in aid to the unemployed, but who was instrumental in passing the first Bush tax cut which cost the government ( and us) a cool $ 1.7 trillion.

What are those pompous fools in Washington using for brains? $ 1.7 trillion could have revitalized our shipbuilding industry and created jobs for all of the nation’s unemployed. We’d no longer be reading about foreclosures, aid to the unemployed, and recessions and depressions.

Do they think their $ 1.7 trillion aid to the wealthy has assured their reelection? They’re dreaming.