Posted on 09/03/2012 4:42:49 PM PDT by LD Jackson
How many times have we heard Barack Obama and the liberal Democrats make statements that try to pin the blame for the mortgage crisis on the Republicans, in general, and President George W. Bush, in particular? About a month ago, the Obama campaign came out with an ad that accused Mitt Romney of wanting to go back to the failed policies that "caused the mess in the first place". Let's look at some of the facts and see if Barack Obama is telling the truth, or hiding from his own record.
To do that, I want to look at a couple of articles that have been published, with substantial research on the topic. It's amazing what you can learn from a little research. For starters, it was not the policies of the Republicans, or George W. Bush, that caused the problems that led to the housing crisis. It was the Democrats who perpetuated it, and who continue to do so today.
(Saberpoint) To make a long story short, the easy mortgage money caused real estate prices to rise substantially, creating a "bubble." When the bubble burst, home values plummeted and thousands of subprime borrowers simply walked away from their mortgage, which now exceeded the market value of the home. Banks were stuck with loan collateral that was worth less than the outstanding principal. Banks, mortgage companies and other financial institutions, including pension plans that had invested in mortgage loans, went bust. Banks failed by the thousands. The shockwave through the economy resulted in credit drying up overnight and many non-financial businesses failed as a result.I have made this same point, more than once, on Political Realities. No matter what the Democrats would like us to believe, it was their policies that led to the housing crisis and subsequently, the bursting of the housing bubble. Even though some of President Bush's policies did not pan out, even causing our debt and deficit to grow, it was not his fault the Democrats rejected his warning that trouble was coming. No matter how the liberal Democrats try to spin this issue, the facts can not be avoided. The blame lies directly at the feet of the Democrats.And the Democrats did it. Not Bush, who months before the crash warned of the bubble and the need to reign in FHA's easy credit, who held committee hearings on the subject with key Democrats. The Democrats would have none of it, arguing that real estate would always go up, so no problem.
Having said that, let us look at what Barack Obama's role was in this. He doesn't want Americans to know this, but he played more than just a passing role in the crisis. His efforts to increase the number of minority homeowners helped cause this mess. His words, not mine.
(The Daily Caller) President Barack Obama was a pioneering contributor to the national subprime real estate bubble, and roughly half of the 186 African-American clients in his landmark 1995 mortgage discrimination lawsuit against Citibank have since gone bankrupt or received foreclosure notices.Let me make sure you read that correctly. Barack Obama says Mitt Romney wants to go back to the same policies that caused this mess in the first place, but it was his own policies that helped create the mess. What else should we expect from a man who, by his very actions and words, proves he cares little for the truth?As few as 19 of those 186 clients still own homes with clean credit ratings, following a decade in which Obama and other progressives pushed banks to provide mortgages to poor African Americans.
The startling failure rate among Obama’s private sector clients was discovered during The Daily Caller’s review of previously unpublished court information from the lawsuit that a young Obama helmed as the lead plaintiff’s attorney.
Obama’s lawsuit was one element of a national “anti-redlining” campaign led by Chicago’s progressive groups, who argued that banks unfairly refused to lend money to people living within so-called “redlines” around African-American communities. The campaign was powered by progressives’ moral claim that their expertise could boost home ownership among the United States’ most disadvantaged minority, African-Americans.Not only did Barack Obama help create the housing crisis, but as President Obama, he has continued the same policy of pressuring banks to make risky loans. Hasn't that already proven to have caused this mess? Why would he insist on going back to the same failed policies? Better yet, why would he continue blaming the Republicans, in general, and Mitt Romney, in particular? Actually, I know the answer to that last question. It wouldn't fit his narrative to tell the truth, therefore another lie has to be told.Progressive activists’ ambition instead contributed greatly to a housing bubble that burst in 2007, crashed the nation’s economy in 2008, wiped out at least $4 trillion in equity, kept unemployment above 8 percent for four years, and damaged the intended beneficiaries of looser mortgage lending standards.
In the White House, Obama has continued to intensify regulatory pressure on banks to provide more risky loans to African-Americans and Latinos. He has used lawsuits to fund his allies. And taxpayers are now unwittingly contributing to a re-inflation of housing prices.
Meanwhile, the president has blamed the housing bubble on supposed GOP deregulation, even though President George W. Bush expanded the regulation-expanding, anti-redlining policies established by progressives during Bill Clinton’s presidency.
In what is an unsurprising move, Obama has since tried to lay the blame at the feet of the mortgage companies. Here is more from The Daily Caller. You would do well to read it all, as it contains information heretofore unreleased to the public.
He sought public credit for the lawsuit: His employer submitted a docket to the court that listed him as the lead attorney for two of the three named plaintiffs in the case. The docket bound Obama’s name to the lawsuit — and to the 186 clients who would soon follow.Even then, Barack Obama was trying out his lines about greed and shifting the blame for policy failures to others. Even then, Barack Obama was unwilling to accept the policies he was advocating had failed and had caused troubles for a lot of businesses and individuals. How familiar does that sound? Not much different from his actions some four years later. And he wants to accuse Mitt Romney of wanting to go backwards and to give him another four years to get it right? I think not.Obama also used his courtroom work to win a keynote speaking slot at an important conference of Chicago housing groups in 1996. Friends said “‘he’s really thoughtful, [and] he’s done some work as an attorney in these communities,’” Joel Bookman, director of programs for the influential Local Initiatives Support Corporation, which organized the event, told TheDC.
Obama endorsed the national subprime policy, telling a Wall Street audience in September 2007 that “subprime lending started off as a good idea: Helping Americans buy homes who couldn’t previously afford to.”
But by then, the disastrous impact of the top-down subprime policy was obvious, so Obama so tried to push the blame on the banks. “They began to lower their standards. … Most everyone knew that some of these deals were just too good to be true,” he told his Wall Street audience, “but all that money flowing in made it tempting to look the other way.”
I have been saying this for years. How stupid or gutless could Republicans be not to blame the mortgage collapse on Obama whenever the subject arises? Bob
The entire housing melt down was a set up by the Dems from the beginning and Obama was involved the entire time. 1st as a foot soldier, then a lawyer, then an Illinois Rep, then a US Senator, and finally their coup d’etat, as President.
Been trying to let folks know for years on my site:
OBAMA TIED DIRECTLY TO THE FINANCIAL CRISIS
http://www.jeffhead.com/obama/communityorgan.htm
He never wanted to “fix” anything. The plan was to bring it down, blame it on the GOP, then get in place to “fundamental;ly change” the whole of the US free market economy.
In other words, President Obama inherited the mortgage crisis from Senator Obama.
Obama got involved in the game as soon as he could. He learned well as a foot soldier in a movement that was well under way by that time, just as you say.
But he climbed the ladder quickly to lawyer, state leg, and then the US Senate, and then just as quickly to President.
He was their man from the get go and he has been rapidly dismantling this nation’s free market as a result.
We literally put the fox in charge of the hen house in 2008.
Amen to every bot of that...we need people who are not timid up there, and who will look in the face of this evil and spit in its eye.
Each of us needs to expose it whenever we can.
OBAMA TIED DIRECTLY TO THE FINANCIAL CRISIS
http://www.jeffhead.com/obama/communityorgan.htm
OBAMA’S DISASTEROUS FIRSTS
http://www.jeffhead.com/obama1sts.htm
WHO REALLY IS BARACK OBAMA?
http://www.jeffhead.com/whoisobama.htm
In order to come up with another way to support themselves using OPM, Clinton had his Treasury Secretary, Lloyd Bentsen, announce a new minority housing plan in December 1993.
Banks went along or their management would go to prison.
Did he give you a link or just claim Snopes said it?
Snopes is a left-wing website anyway.
I wouldn’t trust anything that came from there.
I suspect it merely put that out there since it did not like what you were saying and wanted to falsely claim it debunked.
He built that.
My link was to a White House press release.
How do you debunk a press release?
Well the SOP for the Democrat party is to simply claim it was debunked. It doesn’t matter if it actually was, they simply say it knowing a certain % of people will believe the lie
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