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Thanks to MASSPIRG and Americans for Financial Reform (AFR), I’ll be going to Washington next week to meet with my Congressmen. I’m hoping to have thousands of stories on shamethebanks.org from people who have suffered at the hands of banks and financial instructions. The same banks and institutions who have been allowed to run amok on Wall Street and nearly took the rest of us down with them less than two years ago.

When I get there I want to show Senators John Kerry and Scott Brown why this country needs financial reform and why we need their vote on the The Restoring American Financial Stability Act. Your letters and stories will serve as irrefutable evidence that Congress needs to reform the way Wall Street has been doing business.

I, along with others representing several states from across the country are there to send a message that a vote for financial reform is a vote for Main Street and that we still count.

If you’ve followed my posts here or on the shamethebanks.org website you know that my wife and I have been affected personally and financially by the lack of regulation and oversight of this country’s financial industry.

While our homes, credit, and what little savings we’ve been able to hold on to is accosted, we watch while companies like Goldman Sachs give out $5 billion in bonuses for three months of work in the wake of charges of fraud. Money they were able to make because people like us have been working all our lives to pay taxes.

Millions of people in this country have felt the effects of the utter disregard, hubris, and arrogance that nearly crippled this country and wiped out the chance for most of us to scratch out a living and maintain our dignity and self-respect.

In addition to my own story, radio interviews, and writing about it on Huffington Post and my own site, I’ve received and heard hundreds of stories from people whose lives have been impacted by this crisis. Through e-mails and conversations, I’ve heard numerous stories from people who have lost their job, seen their home lose 40-60 percent of its value over night, been scammed by loan mod companies, seen credit card interest rates shoot up to 29 percent and FICO scores plummet, watched their bank accounts be depleted, been insulted by ignorant anonymous commenters, told by government agency employees that this entire economic disaster was their fault. Been threatened with, in some cases, fraudulent foreclosure, had the Sheriff at their door, and been subjected to ridiculous requests for paperwork and documents only to find that at the end of it all they will inevitably be denied the proverbial carrot at the end of the stick after seemingly playing by the rules -- Rules that change on a daily basis, on a whim, and without warning.

I also understand the apathy, fear, and lack of time people have to invest in a cause. Even one as important as this. But I have to remind myself of what a friend (a consumer protection attorney for over 30 years) said to me not too long ago when I was considering throwing in the towel.

“I have to believe that it takes a spark to start a prairie fire and that there’s a chance I could be that spark.”

The people who wrote and service these sloppy, unconscionable, and poorly written loans are heard by Congress every day. As are the credit card companies and banks that charge 29 percent interest rates and $65 overdraft fees. When was the last time any of us were heard? Most members of Congress are oblivious to what goes on in their own state. Nor do they make an effort to understand or listen to real stories.

In recent post, “Why Homeowners aren’t Being Heard”, about Barney Frank’s office soliciting homeowner stories for a hearing, I wrote, “The request for stories, allegedly from Frank's office, was made in much the same way a 5th grader might do a science project. The night before with practically no research.

Elizabeth Warren, chair of the Congressional Oversight Panel, together with an unfortunately short list of advocacy groups and elected officials is working hard to protect us and put an end to what can only be described as the pillaging of American working families. They are working to get Congress to pass the financial regulatory reform bill. This trip has been organized to send people from different parts of the country to Congress in an attempt to have our voices heard by the people we put in charge and who hold our fate in their vote.

The bill, according to FRA and Warren, “would offer protections for regular people from things like credit card interest rates and fees that increase for no justifiable reason; incomprehensible, trick mortgages peddled to people who qualified for regular mortgages; and car dealers who get kickbacks for selling people high cost loans when they qualify for more affordable credit.”

This bill addresses the precise key areas and would protect Main Street and American families from the irresponsible behavior that went unchecked and allowed the banks to wreak nearly unrecoverable havoc on American families. The residual damage has made it impossible for many of us to ever attain the now elusive American dream.

True to his intellectually dishonest form, Republican leader and Kentucky Republican, Mitch McConnell has been tossing out the word “bailout” in the hopes of killing the bill by putting his own spin on its actually wording. McConnell's claim that the financial reform bill "actually guarantees future bailouts of Wall Street banks" at the expense of taxpayers is false, according to Politifact.

While the bill definitely has the support of key decision-makers like President Obama, Timothy Geithner, Chris Dodd, and John Kerry to name a few, other Senators (all 41 of the GOP according to CBS News) are planning to filibuster the bill and have voiced their opposition despite the overwhelming evidence showing a desperate need for reform.

Scott Brown, from my own state, can’t even describe the bill, but is confident that he will oppose it.

In an almost Palin-esque moment during a Boston Globe interview, when asked what areas he thought should be fixed, he replied: "Well, what areas do you think should be fixed? I mean, you know, tell me. And then I'll get a team and go fix it."

Why do we need Scott Brown, or anyone, to assemble a team to tell your stories, your letters, and your outrage? You are the team. Some of you have already written your story in the form of hardship letters, forum posts, and letters to the media or to your elected officials. Go to shamethebanks.org, register on the site, and post your story.

The years of lobbying to deregulate the financial industry is what caused the American dream to slip further away from us, our children, our family, and our friends in a short period of time. We must let Congress know that this bill is their chance to save that dream.

The people in Congress and on Wall Street who are opposing this bill count on our apathy and laziness. They Bank on it. Let's show them that they're wrong.

I’m encouraging you to share this post via e-mail, Twitter, Facebook, and any form of social media you know of. Post to forums and web sites if you’re so inclined. I’d be willing to bet that you or someone you know has a story they’d like to share on shamethebanks.org of how they were mistreated, duped, taken advantage of, or generally screwed financially because we’ve simply let these guys run the show and make up the rules as they go along.

You can follow the trip to DC next week on twitter @shamethebanks.org, on Facebook, and on the site itself.

Also at the Huffington Post

Last week I wrote about my upcoming trip to D.C. sponsored by MASSPIRG and Americans for Financial Reform (AFR) to meet with my Congressmen about their vote on The Restoring American Financial Stability Act in the Senate. I asked people who have suffered at the hands of banks and financial institutions to submit stories on shamethebanks.org for me to use as collateral and proof of what the lack of regulation and oversight has caused.

While MASSPIRG Attorney Lizzi Weyant and I flew to D.C. from Boston, a driver wearing a black suit stood in front of a limo outside Scott Brown's office holding a sign that read "Scott Brown".  As this video shows:  MASSPIRG had rented the limo to take Senator Brown to his "real" constituents ... on Wall Street.

Almost immediately after we landed in D.C. I received a phone call from my wife Pamela telling me that she and shamethebanks contributing blogger and dear friend Teresa Beougher in Ohio were frantically publishing the flood of stories that were coming into the site thanks to several bloggers, organizations, individuals, and homeowners who had worked and volunteered to help get the word out (stay tuned for that post).

The stories have continued to come in and will hopefully serve as proof to some of the people I was fortunate enough to talk to in D.C. that millions of American working families have been looted and abused by the reckless and irresponsible actions of Wall Street and the financial industry. As a result of submitting her story to Shamethebanks Angie Burke, of Reading PA, was contacted by Pat Collier of the Senate Democratic Policy Committee because he read her story on shamethebanks.org. I am hopeful that we will continue to receive stories from others and that they will serve as proof that reform is not only imperative, but crucial to the survival of our country.

Our first meeting on Wednesday morning was at Treasury where we were addressed by several high ranking Treasury officials. Among them were Diana Farrell, Deputy Director of the National Economic Council, and my personal favorite Austan Goolsbee,  a member of the Council of Economic Advisors and Chief Economist of the President's Economic Recovery Advisory Board.

Both Farrell and Goolsbee (the more animated and entertaining of the two) illustrated the importance of the bill passing. Goolsbee assured us that the bill would be vetoed by Obama if it arrived on his desk full of amendments and exemptions for various special interest groups who were spending millions of dollars daily lobbying to squash the bill in the Senate -- a stark contrast to our efforts that day.

Farrell briefly mentioned the  administration's "successful" programs, referring to HAMP, Making Home Affordable, and similar programs designed to address the mortgage fiasco. A fiasco that was directly caused by the banking industry and Wall Street's casino mentality and was brought to an even greater light by the Senate hearing and testimony of Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein the day before.

I asked her why the administration continues to see these programs as a success when the only point of reference they use to gauge the performance is the bank's own reporting of their progress. She then directed me to the progress reports on financialstability.gov.

Those reports are crap; I've seen them," I said in response, "Why aren't you talking to the homeowners and people whose loans have been supposedly modified. Why isn't there any oversight or verification?"

I didn't get a direct response. Instead she looked to her colleagues in the back of the room and said, "We'll take that under advisement," and moved to the next question.

I had better luck with Goolsbee, who after finishing a conversation about derivatives in the hallway with someone else, turned to me and like a scene from The West Wing said, "Walk with me."

As we walked down the Treasury halls to the stairs I told him about my own loan modification with Ocwen Bank and how they had added almost $30,000 to the original amount of the loan and charged off another $12,000 and inflated the value of our home by $120,000 in a fabricated IRS claim.

"My story is not unique," I said. "There are millions of people like my wife and me."

I told him that I had stories from people about Bank of America calling homeowners who had 30 year fixed interest loans they had never been late on to offer them a HAMP modification (what I call the friends and family plan) in an effort to raise the number of successful modifications they can claim. Rather than helping borrowers who were genuinely in need of the program, Bank of America is cherry picking borrowers for a program these homeowners don't need.

I told him about shamethebanks.org and that real consumers were posting their bank horror stories in hopes that they would be heard. Goolsbee looked at the site address I had handed to him along with my email address during my non-stop talking and said, "That's a really good idea."

Just as he turned the corner to the staircase I asked him to please talk to the people who were most affected by these programs and who stand to lose the most when they fail and are misused by the very banks they rely on to report back.

"People are getting screwed Austen," I said. He was already half way down the stairs, but I think he said, "We should do that." I still hope that wasn't my imagination.

We left Treasury and headed to the Senate. I called my wife and told her about my brief conversation with Goolsbee. "Toots," I said, "I feel like I accomplished what I came here to do."

Goolsbee himself admits to being out of touch, and I do hope that my sense of him is not naïve. Along with his obvious intellect he strikes me as a decent and compassionate guy. If there was one guy that day I wanted to be heard by, it was him.

Our next meeting was at newly elected Massachusetts Senator Scott Brown's office. We met with Nat Hoopes, fresh from Wall Street and hired to Brown's staff two weeks ago.  Hoopes led us out the back door of former Senator Ted Kennedy's office to the second floor balcony.

Hoopes had come armed with the 1400 page bill brutally dog eared and peppered with colorful post-it notes.

Hoopes immediately took the floor, launching into the standard republican "wonky bill" and "$50 billion slush fund" rhetoric and patently false claims we've heard from the likes of Mitch McConnell.

"The democrats are going to jam this bill down the Republican's throat like they did with the health bill," Hoopes said.

At one point in the conversation Hoopes referred to the previous day's Senate hearing saying, "Even Goldman Sachs is for this bill and if they're for it you know it can't be good." A pretty far reach considering Blankfein made the statement during a three hour grilling by Congress in the midst an eleven hour hearing. A statement that could only be interpreted as blowing smoke.

Further along in the conversation Hoopes said, "My boss would rather break up the banks" and "He's against the stuff that was added to the House bill. I think Barney Frank would agree with him."

A few days before Hoopes made that claim Brown, on Face the Nation, said that tightening Wall Street regulations could lead to job losses nearing 27,000 in the Bay State.  In response to that questionable statistic, Barney Frank, who authored the House version of the overhaul, said, "I have no idea where that figure came from.  I don't think anybody does.  It may have just been spewed out by the Icelandic volcano with some of the other debris."

According to Hoopes, one of the only things in the bill Brown was opposed to was the so called "slush fund" in respect to the resolution authority designed to ensure that the banks themselves - not the taxpayers will have to pay for future failings.

Brown, according to Hoopes is concerned about the Volcker Rule and about how to end Too Big To Fail because of the "pass through" tax to consumers.  He's worried about how the regulations will negatively affect small businesses who are already doing the right thing.

Less than two hours after leaving Brown's office, outside the Capitol, Senators Bernie Sanders, Robert Casey, and Sheldon Whitehouse announced that the republican filibuster had been broken and some of the Republicans had caved.

"When the American People say enough is enough you will see Republicans get on board," Sanders said in a press conference pointing to a group of us standing behind him.

According to Hoopes, Brown supports a strong Consumer Financial Protection Agency and Derivatives Regulations, regulation of shadow markets like car dealers and payday lenders, and wants to see tighter protections in place for military service-members. Now that the $50 billion fund has been removed (Brown's obstacle, according to Hoopes) and the bill has been moved to a floor debate, we should fully expect him to vote the right way and pass strong consumer financial regulation.

Sen. John Kerry's office assured us that the Massachusetts Democrat would support the bill and I, along with many Massachusetts consumers, thank him for his vote.

The night before our upcoming day of lobbying I sat with Lizzi Weyant and Somerville resident Susan Hecht with Jobs for Justice. We discussed the plan for the next day and how we were going to approach the various meetings.

A born cynic, I wondered out loud if our trip and efforts would make a difference. Weyant, who is far from ideological said, "I honestly believe that this bill will pass and that we will have financial reform in this country. That years from now we will tell our grandchildren that we had a hand in this."

I think she might be right.

Now that the bill is going to the Senate floor for a vote, the debate hinges mostly on the amendments.  The amendments that are attached to the bill will either strengthen it, or they could dramatically and disappointingly weaken it.  USPIRG has put together an amendment voting guide and will be following the votes on the amendments in real time. We need to hold our Senators accountable.

Despite Goolsbee's assurance that President Obama will veto a less then acceptable bill, holding our legislators accountable is imperative to our financial safety. They will eventually need our vote too. You can follow the votes at USPIRG.org.

This post is also at Huffington Post

I got an email this morning from Austan Goolsbee and spit my coffee across the desk. I had wondered if he’d heard me when I talked to him D.C. and apparently he did. In his email Goolsbee expressed his dismay and wrote, “I have been forwarding the shamethebanks.org information to others more able to investigate …”

Goolsbee is Chief Economist of the President's Economic Recovery Advisory Board.

I did a quick run-down of the week: I talked to Goolsbee on Wednesday morning. Later that week Geithner said he was going to crack down on loan servicers and people who had submitted their story on shamethebanks.org had started hearing from senators because they had read their stories.

Tammy Becker, a homeowner wrote, “I received a call shortly after posting my story from a gentleman by the name of Pat. He works for Senator Casey and wanted to ask me additional questions.  Monday, there will be a hearing at Drexel University in Philly.  He got an ear full and told me that he will have someone from Senator Casey's office pursue this further. He asked if I was willing to tell my story in the future, when they need to hear ‘from the people’.”

After hearing from her congressman, Angie Burke wrote, “I wanted to say THANK YOU!  I never thought my story was that important or anyone would really notice... who knew?!“

So get the word out by any means you can. Tweet, Facebook, e-mail, telephone, shout out the window, bang on doors. Call your Senators and Representatives and tell them to read the stories.

What an unbelievable chain of events. All because I walked with Goolsbee through Treasury and slipped him a piece of paper with the site address on it. And of course talked as fast I could before we got around the corner and he went down the stairs. You can read the story on Huffington Post: Goolsbee: Walk With Me.

Here’s an excerpt from the Huff Post article:

I told [Goolsbee] that I had stories from people about Bank of America calling homeowners who had 30 year fixed interest loans they had never been late on to offer them a HAMP modification (what I call the friends and family plan) in an effort to raise the number of successful modifications they can claim. Rather than helping borrowers who were genuinely in need of the program, Bank of America is cherry picking borrowers for a program these homeowners don't need.

I told him about shamethebanks.org and that real consumers were posting their bank horror stories in hopes that they would be heard. Goolsbee looked at the site address I had handed to him along with my email address during my non-stop talking and said, "That's a really good idea."

Just as he turned the corner to the staircase I asked him to please talk to the people who were most affected by these programs and who stand to lose the most when they fail and are misused by the very banks they rely on to report back.

"People are getting screwed Austan," I said. He was already half way down the stairs, but I think he said, "We should do that." I still hope that wasn't my imagination.

Read the full story on Huffington Post

While I’d like to take all the credit, this has been a long time coming and has involved a lot of people. I started getting stories from people – desperate and frightened people who wanted their story told. I couldn’t tell them all and many reporters wouldn’t or couldn’t. Who can blame them? There are too many. So what better way than to let you tell your story … in your own words.

Many sites and bloggers have been incredibly accommodating and have seen the benefit of cooperating. Jorge Newbery of American Homeowner Preservation sent out a mailer to everyone on their mailing list as did Marian Anthony of Short Sale Rush. Bruce Marks, of NACA offered to do the same.

Steve Dibert of MFI-Miami who did my loan doc audit before I left; Denise Richardson, givemebackmycredit.com who has advised and consoled me, and 4closurefraud’s Michael all put links up and helped spread the word. As did Swarmthebanks and foreclosurehamlet.  I can’t forget Red Tape Chronicles for the great piece about shamethebanks.org on Tuesday that came out while I was in the air on the way to D.C.

There’s also Mike Dillon and Jack Wright who have been at this for many years longer than I. They have provided invaluable information from tireless research for me to go to Washington D.C. with.

I’m sure I’ve left some out and if I have please send me an e-mail me and I’ll gladly add you. That’s the beauty of not using print.

I have a very special place in my heart for the people who blog, answer questions, provide support, listen to me complain, talk me off the ledge, test the site, and most of all offer advice to people whose stories they read.

The comments have been invaluable - both helpful and compassionate. I suggest you read them. Many have restored my faith in humanity – not an easy task after fighting Ocwen bank for two years or reading the comments on my own story or articles.

And then there are all the people on Main Street who posted their stories and continue to post their stories. People who believe that by banding together and making noise we will be heard.

We have been heard. People in Washington are taking notice and reading the stories of how you have been mistreated and victimized by the banks and servicers. How their plan is not working and how the system continues to be gamed at our expense.

We are Democracy in action.

I could not have gone to D.C. with just my story. I needed yours and your courage and your ability to not give up when all the signs tell you should.

Keep posting your stories, send this article to anyone you know who’s been screwed by a bank.

Having recently traveled to D.C. a couple of weeks ago to lobby with others from around the country for financial reform and a strong Consumer Financial Protection Agency, it has become increasingly difficult to not take the Senate votes personally.

I read the stories on ShametheBanks.org as they come in every day. Stories submitted by people who have been affected by Wall Street gone wild and whose lives have been severely impacted by the lack of regulation that caused the melt down nearly two years ago. Reading these stories makes it even more difficult to understand the reasons behind certain senators voting in favor of amendments that would weaken any chance of real financial reform.

One of my stops in D.C. was to Scott Brown's office, where I talked with his staff about the people in Massachusetts who have been affected by the rampant abuses on Wall Street. I referenced my own mortgage as an example of the fraud that's taken place. I reviewed the two year battle I've had with Ocwen Bank over a mortgage riddled with violations, referencing a 29 page time line as evidence and explained how my wife and I, despite our efforts, have ended up in worse financial shape and owing more money than we did when we bought the house four years ago. So when Scott Brown voted along party lines to approve an amendment that would cripple consumer protection, for me it was one more case of a congressman siding with Wall Street and special interest.

Considering Brown's office has said he supports consumer financial protection, it's concerning that he voted in favor of the Shelby amendment. An amendment that according to a statement prepared by Ed Mierzwinski, Consumer Program Director of U.S.PIRG, was a "...dangerous amendment to the independent Consumer Financial Protection Bureau included in the Senate's Wall Street reform bill. The amendment, sponsored by Sen. Richard Shelby (R-AL) was quite simple: the consumer agency would have been given no independence, no funding for enforcement, no enforcement over any banks, and consequently, no authority to protect consumers."

So why, whether they drive a truck or ride in a limo, would someone see this amendment as a good thing for the American people?

In an recent interview with Huffington Post Elizabeth Warren, said, "I'm tired of hearing politicians claim to support families and, at the same time, vote with the big banks on the most important financial reform package in generations. I'm deep-down tired of it."

Warren went on to say, "There were others that thought they could get away with voting for the overall reform package while doing everything they could behind the scenes to hold water for the big banks and earn all those campaign contributions. We're about to find out if any senators want to play those games."

I may not drive a pickup truck, but as a regular guy in the trenches subjected to the abuses of the financial industry, I don't really care if a senator votes strategically in order to gain favor with his or her party. I don't care about the posturing and political ploys that go on in D.C. - I just want to know if I'm being represented. It would appear that in Brown's case, along with most of the GOP, the games have begun.

Recently, Joe S., from Maine submitted his story to Shamethebanks.org. In it he wrote, "My story is probably the same as many of you... I'm a single dad - career military man - a steady member of our community... I don't live a flashy extravagant life, but my bills and mortgage kept going up - to the point where I was afraid I'd start falling behind in my now large mortgage of 1,826.00 per month."

Joe also mentions having written his Senator, Olympia Snowe, who once again departed from the "party of no" caricature and was one of two republicans, along with Chuck Grassley, to vote down the bill and do what makes sense for her constituents.

Snowe also teamed up with Al Franken last week to file an amendment to the bill specifically designed for people pursuing home loan modifications. The amendment proposes a new "Office of the Homeowner Advocate" that would be devoted to solving homeowner's problems with the administration's modification programs.

According to a Propublica article by Paul Kiel, "Under the amendment, all homeowner complaints about servicers would go to this new "Office of the Homeowner Advocate" within the Treasury Department. That would effectively create an appeals process for homeowners who think they've been wrongly denied a modification--something that housing counselors and other consumer advocates have long said is desperately needed."

The article goes on to say that this new office would have the authority to penalize servicers who do not comply with the program's guidelines.

Needless to say, that's going to be a busy office.

I applaud both Snowe and Franken for their efforts and would encourage all members of Congress to read the stories on ShametheBanks.org. There are numerous stories from their constituents who continue to be victimized by banks and servicers who have done little more than game a system that was put in place to help people in need. Maybe some insight into how their constituents are being affected would serve to enlighten them the way Franken and Snowe appear to have been.

As for Brown (and Kerry for that matter) I will be watching how they vote on this and the other dozen or so amendments in the coming weeks.

To me, like many Americans it's simple: It's Wall Street vs. Main Street, and anyone who votes to weaken financial reform should have a limo sent to their office, to take them to their real constituents ... on Wall Street.

MASSPIRG sent a limo to Brown's Massachusetts office a couple of weeks ago to do just that.

I'd even be willing to chip in for gas if it would help get the point across.

You can see more about the votes and track how your senators are voting at www.uspirg.org/amendment-guide. I encourage you to call your senators and tell them how you expect them to vote. Let's see if they listen.

This article also appeared in Huffington Post