I'm the decider

Before spending too much time debating whether Democrats can muster enough votes to change the bankruptcy code to allow judges to modify the terms of mortgage loans, I suppose we should all have kept in mind the obvious: the Bush administration would probably veto any such legislation in the blink of an eye. And while there might be enough votes to get a bill passed, there are enough Democrats with reservations about the idea that an override probably ain't in the cards.

From today's policy statement:

"The Administration strongly opposes providing bankruptcy judges with power to modify the terms of mortgages for debtors in bankruptcy proceedings. Amending the bankruptcy code in this manner would undermine existing contracts, leading to contraction in mortgage credit availability and affordability. These and other bankruptcy-related provisions in the bill would rewrite long-standing tenets of bankruptcy law in ways that would fundamentally alter the expectations of parties to hundreds of thousands of home purchases after the fact. These
provisions would also likely prolong the time it will take the market to recover from the current downturn."
...

"If S. 2636 were presented to the President, his senior advisors would recommend he veto the bill."

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