Moody's downgrades 15 global banks. Would the banks have been better served to allow homeowners to refinance?

After We-the-People all ponied up and paid for the Bush Administration’s TARP to bail out the big US banks, the banks used the largess to remain solvent and also to give their executives big bonuses. But aside from that, they sat on the cash. They refused to lend to small businesses. They used our money to lobby Congress to do nothing about the $1 trillion student-loan debt crisis. Most disturbingly, they refused to let homeowners save on their mortgages by refinancing at today’s far lower rates. This led to a second wave of foreclosures that drastically extended the Great Recession.

On June 21st, Moody’s downgraded the bond ratings of 15 big global banks including Bank of America, Goldman Sachs, Citi, J.P. Morgan, and Morgan Stanley in the USA. Had the banks used the bailout money to help struggling homeowners and small businesses instead of to reward themselves for their own reckless practices that crashed our economy to begin with, wouldn’t they now be in a stronger position? With Wall Street now pouring barrels of cash into GOP coffers because the Republicans promise to slash Wall Street and banking regulation, cut taxes for the wealthy and try to pay for the cuts by gutting social programs like food stamps, Medicare, Social Security and such, what will it take for the fat cats to learn that acting in ways that destroy the economy they feed on will ultimately starve them as well as the 99%? Or do you think the tiny portion of the 1% who are actively working to grab everything for themselves can really function just fine without the rest of us? Can the uncolg their own sewers and take their own trash to the landfill?