New York Times 2003: Dems Oppose Bush Plan To Rein in Fannie and Freddie

The Patriot Room ^ | September 18, 2008 | Bill Dupray

[Bill Dupray]

I think Obama may still have been 12 yeas old and still in his beer-and-blow years at that time, so there is no record of his position.

The New York Times from September 11, 2003.

The Bush administration today recommended the most significant regulatory overhaul in the housing finance industry since the savings and loan crisis a decade ago. . . .

The plan is an acknowledgment by the administration that oversight of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac -- which together have issued more than $1.5 trillion in outstanding debt -- is broken. A report by outside investigators in July concluded that Freddie Mac manipulated its accounting to mislead investors, and critics have said Fannie Mae does not adequately hedge against rising interest rates.

Despite the attempt to curb the waste, fraud, and abuse, some Democrats were not on board. Barney Frank really looks like a genius on this one. And this guy was the ranking member on the Financial Services Committee.

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.

Yeah we need more stuff taken over and managed by the Federal Government. Those guys are really good at finance and mortages. Maybe when Obama wins he can make Franklin Raines the Treasury Secretary. That would sure be a change. Let's bring crime, corruption, and mismanagement to the Cabinet level.

[CharlesWayneCT]

It’s not a slam dunk, because the media is ignoring it.

If the parties were reversed, every evening news story would be about how the Democrats TRIED to fix this, but the evil republicans blocked it to pay off their fat-cat friends.

And since the MEME is that Republicans are big-business fat-cats, the people would believe it.

But because the Republicans were trying to clean up, and the Democrats were in bed with the financiers, it doesn’t fit the story line, so the media ignores it.

The power of the media to distort goes far beyond bias in the stories they tell. Far worse is the bias in the choice of which stories NOT TO TELL.

[t2buckeye]

This is a slam dunk for McCain IF he focuses on this rather than on Wall Street bashing. Not to say that Wall Street is not to blame, but his focus should be on his recognition of the problem (as with the surge) back in 2003...and the Dems and Obama’s do-anything-for-contributions mentality

[alwaysontheright]

bttt - gotta follow up on that Barney Frank quote. Awesome!!

[r-q-tek86]

ping