Gov't Caused Housing Crisis, Including Obama

I’ve been nearing a medical crisis of my own involving High Blood Pressure as I’ve read account after account of Democrats doing their best to lay the blame for the current financial crisis at the feet of Free Marketers. Reality based insight into the Governmental basis for the meltdown and solutions for the problem are simply ignored in an orgy of blame the Market and the GOP so we can extend Government control over yet another vast segment of the Economy.

Unfortunately for Leftists whose only hope lies in the “Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain!” strategy, the truth is starting to emerge. Every day that passes without a bailout gives us more opportunity to get the Truth out. That Truth is that any bailout plan arising from Congress will simply be asking the same people who screwed the thing up in the first place to come in and fix it.

I found the video below following a Tweet from Buzz Brockway who tips the hat to Moe Lane over at RedState. For those of you interested in understanding exactly what caused the housing bubble; why it resulted in the mess we’re in; and, who NOT to trust to fix it, play the video below. It will be the best use of the next 10 minutes of your life. Then call your Representatives and Senators.

Then I flipped over to my email and found this gem from a friend.

The following quotes are from the New York Times five years ago. Republicans proposed increased oversight and regulation of Fannie and Freddie, but Democrats fought it.

“The Bush administration today recommended the most significant regulatory overhaul in the housing finance industry since the savings and loan crisis a decade ago. Under the plan, disclosed at a Congressional hearing today, a new agency would be created within the Treasury Department to assume supervision of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the government-sponsored companies that are the two largest players in the mortgage lending industry. The new agency would have the authority, which now rests with Congress, to set one of the two capital-reserve requirements for the companies. It would exercise authority over any new lines of business. And it would determine whether the two are adequately managing the risks of their ballooning portfolios.” Democrats pushed back. “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 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. “I don’t see much other than a shell game going on here, moving something from one agency to another and in the process weakening the bargaining power of poorer families and their ability to get affordable housing,” Mr. Watt said.

Given the above, the following would be great questions for Barack Obama either tonight or in the Economic Issues debate at Belmont University next month.

1. Why did you stand silent in 2005 and vote with the other Democrats to block very financial reforms which would have prevented the current crisis in the financial markets?

2. One of the primary reasons so many bad mortgage loans were made in the first place is that “community organizers” like ACORN, for which Obama worked, spent decades pressuring banks and bank regulators to do more to make mortgages available to people without much in the way of income, assets, or credit. These campaigns often were couched in racially inflammatory terms. Does Obama still think that banks should have made these loans?

3. Why did you not favor punishment for the former CEO of the bankrupt Fannie Mae, Franklin Raines, a man who personally made $90 million over a few years while cooking the books Enron-style at Fannie Mae? And why did you have Jim Johnson, former Fannie Mae Chairman, helping you pick you VP before the pure embarrassment made him resign?

4. How can you blame John McCain and the Republicans for this mess when you yourself supported the easy credit policies and refused the needed reforms for these programs?

5. How can you blame John McCain and the Republicans for this mess when you yourself supported the easy credit policies and refused the needed reforms for these programs?

Blue Collar Muse