As the World Turns- Newt linked to Freddie Mac

[Whirlaway]

And who/what do you think were "most" responsible for the mess?

Originally Posted by WTF

This shows Coulter total lack of understanding of the mess. Freddie and Fannie were part of the problem but not the major problem.

[CuteOldGuy]

Congress was the major problem. Those clowns used Fannie and Freddie to buy votes by forcing banks to make sub-prime mortgages.

[Whirlaway]

Who in Congress?

[CuteOldGuy]

All of them, led by Barney Frank and Chris Dodd

[WTF]

Originally Posted by CuteOldGuy

Congress was the major problem. Those clowns used Fannie and Freddie to buy votes by forcing banks to make sub-prime mortgages.

Nobody was forced to make a loan. There have been books written on this subjrct , it is way more complicated than to just proclaim that freddie or fannie were mainly responsible. Therating agencies,CDS, moral hazard you could go on and on. I think the problem is/was to big to fail mentality. Markets should be allowed to fail. Countries should be allowed to fail. Why should germany have to bail out greece if greece won't help themselves?

[CuteOldGuy]

Dammit, WTF! I was in a good mood until you had to post something I agree with.

[Whirlaway]

Didn't Bush offer up legislation to regin in Freddie and Fannie.....in 2003 !

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/09/11/bu...annie-mae.html


Intersting paragraphs from the NYTs story on the offered legislation.......

Significant details must still be worked out before Congress can approve a bill. Among the groups denouncing the proposal today were the National Association of Home Builders and Congressional Democrats who fear that tighter regulation of the companies could sharply reduce their commitment to financing low-income and affordable housing.


''These two entities -- Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac -- are not facing any kind of financial crisis,'' said Representative Barney Frank of Massachusetts, the ranking Democrat on the Financial Services Committee. ''The more people exaggerate these problems, the more pressure there is on these companies, the less we will see in terms of affordable housing.''

Representative Melvin L. Watt, Democrat of North Carolina, agreed.

[Iaintliein]

Newt has plenty of baggage. This issue pales in comparison to his pushing "W's" expansion of medicare, favoring amnesty for illegals, and buying into the AGW scam. I know I can't vote for Romney or "O", likely not for Perry, and I'm not sure yet if I could hold my nose long enough to vote for Newt.

[Whirlaway]

Searching searching for the perfect conservative candidate who has the skills to get elected, the resume to govern, and no blemishes....................g ood luck.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nHihyZvoHK8

[Iaintliein]

Originally Posted by Whirlaway

Searching for the perfect conservative candidate who has the skills to get elected, the resume to govern, and no blemishes....................g ood luck.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nHihyZvoHK8

I'm just looking for one that isn't a closeted statist, little better than the POSITOO, or raving religious nut. But thanks for the wish of good luck.

[WTF]

Whirlaway, you do realize the the GOP was in charge of all three branchs of government in 2003. Do you want me to find you a link of bush praising fannie mae? Just google it. It is not hard to find.

[Whirlaway]

Yes. I do. But Bush didn't have the votes to get his reform of Freddie/Fannie thru.........The record is pretty straight forward. Had Bush gotten his bill passed; then alot of the financial mess of 2008 would have been mitigated.

BTW; I think Bush was an awful president and didn't vote for him...so it isn't that I have a dog in this fight...but the facts are the facts.

Originally Posted by WTF

Whirlaway, you do realize the the GOP was in charge of all three branchs of government in 2003. Do you want me to find you a link of bush praising fannie mae? Just google it. It is not hard to find.

[WTF]

Originally Posted by Whirlaway

Yes. I do. But Bush didn't have the votes to get his reform of Freddie/Fannie thru.........The record is pretty straight forward. Had Bush gotten his bill passed; then alot of the financial mess of 2008 would have been mitigated.

BTW; I think Bush was an awful president and didn't vote for him...so it isn't that I have a dog in this fight...but the facts are the facts.

Below is Frank's rebuttle to the article you quoted from.

To say Bush wanted to do anything other than shake down Frannie and Freddy for donations is absurd. I will provide another link if you like showing just how much these companies donated to each party.

http://www.usnews.com/opinion/blogs/...nd-freddie-mac

Frank took exception to my characterizations and asked to be allowed to respond. Here is my original post, and below is Frank's rebuttal:

Sam Dealey's recent blog post, "Barney Frank's Fannie and Freddie Muddle", on September 10, 2008, stretches the truth beyond recognition to attack me. While I will use the remainder of this blog post to refute, and therefore tell the truth, of my involvement with the regulatory oversight of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, I am very curious as to why Mr. Dealey did not reach out to me to find out the truth. I assume for some Washington, DC, based editorial writers it is easier to make assumptions—however wrong—and make accusations based on those wrong assumptions rather than to make a simple phone call.
Mr. Dealey points to comments made by former Treasury Secretary John Snow as evidence that reform of the Government Sponsored Enterprises of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were "called" for by the Bush Administration as the basis for the attack against me, but please note he does not list GSE reform as an accomplishment of Mr. Snow's tenure at Treasury or the first seven years of the Administration—that did not happen until the eighth year of the Bush term when a bill that I authored was enacted into law. The President and Mr. Snow failed to deliver—even when their party was in charge of both houses of Congress.
Dealey then cites comments I made in 2003 that the GSEs are not in trouble as evidence that I did not support reform. Wrong. I supported reform then, I support reform now and I delivered. Dealey also fails to report that the Bush Administration did not support the reform efforts of Republican former House Financial Services Committee Chairman Mike Oxley, who recently told the Financial Times that the White House gave him "the one-finger salute" for his efforts to bring about GSE reform.
I also supported—with major opposition from the Bush Administration and their conservative Congressional allies—a tough federal law against predatory lending, and I urged then-Federal Reserve Chairman [COLOR=#005497 !important][COLOR=#005497 !important]Alan [COLOR=#005497 !important]Greenspan[/COLOR][/COLOR][/COLOR] to write regulations based on the Home Owners Equity Protection Act passed by a Democratic Congress in 1994. Those regulations would have outlawed many of the irresponsible lending practices that fueled the [COLOR=#005497 !important][COLOR=#005497 !important]housing [COLOR=#005497 !important]bubble[/COLOR][/COLOR][/COLOR] and now threaten the entire economy. His successor, Ben Bernanke, issued these regulations last July after seeing the economically disastrous impact of an unregulated [COLOR=#005497 !important][COLOR=#005497 !important]market[/COLOR][/COLOR]. If we had a predatory lending law and had Greenspan acted on authority he was given, we might have avoided the subprime crisis entirely. The Democratic majority also delivered, with the help of our Committee's Ranking Member, Rep. Spencer Bachus (R-AL), on a mortgage reform and anti-predatory lending law in 2007.
In addition, the author points to the fact that I voted against GSE reform in 2005, but does not tell readers why. The Republican majority inserted language at the last minute that would prohibit religious organizations from participating. The Catholic and Lutheran churches, and many others, sponsor some of the best not- for-profit housing development organizations in the country. It is only because of this ridiculous action by arch-conservative Republicans that I cast my vote "no". It was not because I was opposed to tougher regulations and oversight of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
The House Financial Services Committee, which I chair, moved aggressively after we took over as the majority party in January, 2007, and passed GSE Reform in March of 2007. We worked cooperatively with Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson to strengthen the bill and the full house voted for GSE reform in early May 2007. I also proposed to Secretary Paulson that we include GSE reform in the stimulus package passed by Congress in January 2008, but he declined, citing problems with the White House with this approach. Now, thanks to the efforts of the Democratic majority, and thanks to the work of former-Chairman Mike Oxley, President Bush can finally count GSE reform as an accomplishment.
A simple phone call to my office would have helped Mr. Dealey get his facts straight.

[I B Hankering]

Originally Posted by WTF

Below is Frank's rebuttle to the article you quoted from.

There were plenty of culprits, but Barney Frank was among the more onerous - he used his influence to get his boy friend hired by Fannie Mae - so he was literally balls deep in the mortgage scam.

[WTF]

The mortgage giants spread their cash evenly: Democrats got 51% and Republicans 49%. Top lawmakers got top dollar.
In the House, Minority Whip Roy Blunt, R-Mo., led among the leadership with $78,500 in donations from Fannie and Freddie. He was followed by Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, $60,500; Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., $51,500; Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., $47,000; and Majority Whip James Clyburn, D-S.C., $26,000.
Regarding the donations, Nick Simpson, press secretary for Blunt, said: “It’s not a quid pro quo. In fact, Blunt voted against the housing bailout and GSE reform, proposals which Fannie and Freddie supported.”
Among the Senate leadership, Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., received $71,499. Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., followed with $40,000.
Fannie and Freddie’s PACs showered nearly $792,000 on members of the House Financial Services Committee, which has jurisdiction over the mortgage titans. The committee chairman, Barney Frank, D-Mass., received $30,500. Ranking member Spencer Bachus, R-Ala., took in $70,500, while Rep. Melissa Bean, D-Ill., received $34,999.
“Their donations do not make me look at them any more favorably,” Frank said. “Indeed, it was under the Democrats that we finally passed legislation giving the Bush administration more regulatory authority over Fannie and Freddie.”
Rep. Paul Kanjorski, D-Pa., who runs a subcommittee overseeing the mortgage giants, received $57,500. The ranking member, Rep. Deborah Pryce, R-Ohio, got $45,000.
Current members of the Senate Banking Committee received about $421,000 from Fannie’s and Freddie’s PACs. Sen. Robert Bennett, R-Utah, has received $71,499, more than any other member of Congress.
Senate Banking Chairman Chris Dodd, D-Conn., received $48,500; ranking GOP member Richard Shelby of Alabama got $23,000.
Senators on a key appropriations panel received $167,000, with Sen. Kit Bond, R-Mo., reaping $64,000.