Posted on 09/08/2008 2:22:19 PM PDT by Rennes Templar
Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin stumbled this weekend when she commented on the federal takeover of mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The Huffington Post "helpfully" pointed out her mistake to anyone who missed it the first time around.
Speaking before voters in Colorado Springs, the Republican vice presidential nominee claimed that lending giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac had "gotten too big and too expensive to the taxpayers." The companies, as McClatchy reported, "aren't taxpayer funded but operate as private companies.
The takeover may result in a taxpayer bailout during reorganization."
Economists and analysts pounced on the misstatement, saying it demonstrated a lack of understanding about one of the key economic issues likely to face the next administration.
"You would like to think that someone who is going to be vice president and conceivable president would know what Fannie and Freddie do," said Dean Baker, co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research. "These are huge institutions and they are absolutely central to our country's mortgage debt. To not have a clue what they do doesn't speak well for her, I'd say."
- snip-
Palin just got a bit ahead of the facts. Now that the federal government has taken over the companies, taxpayers will likely be on the hook now for maybe hundreds of billions of dollars. Perhanps she was just looking ahead.
(Excerpt) Read more at swamppolitics.com ...
[They are tax payer funded now.]
They always were “implicitly” taxpayer funded, by guarantees of the good faith of the American Treasury (now being expended).
>> But the truth is, Sarah did make an undeniable mistake.
Can you point to the specific inaccuracy you found in Palin’s statement?
lots of ticking time bombs left by the clinton administration and irresponsible democrats. they are truly sickening creatures in their treachery; nothing but a bunch of neighborhood punks nominated to high office by other neighborhood punks.
IMHO
Frank James, you ignorant scumbag!
If taxpayers are liable for the losses, it's a risk to the taxpayers. Putting a "quasi-" in front of the "government" description for something just makes it easier for the Democrats to use it to steal more money from the taxpayers.
She spoke correctly.
Factually she’s correct. The ones who stumbled and fumbled are the pinheads on the left engaged in verbal gymnastics by trying to twist themselves into pretzels parsing every single word in a sound bite.
Yeah, I got that.
My don’t-give-a-crap meter is almost pegged...maybe one more post about a gaffe that means squat?
they have alwaya been taxpayer funded in that they don’t pay taxes.
Palin is right, they are private but they are also QUASI-GOVERNMENTAL agencies by definition.
HS? Don’t call my comments HS.
"It looks like the Bush administration is going to intervene with a bailout that could end up costing taxpayers billions of dollars,'' Obama, the Democratic nominee, said today while campaigning in Terre Haute, Indiana. ``These entities are so big and they are so tied into the housing market that it's probably true that we have to take steps to make sure that they don't just collapse.''
Apparently it's not a "gaffe" when Obama says the same thing.
It was not just going to cost us a lot of money. It already had, as of the time she made the statement, cost us a lot of money.
It was not just going to cost us a lot of money. It already had, as of the time she made the statement, cost us a lot of money.
No need to "fess up." She was right.
How so? She never said that they were government funded entities.
Dean "Pot" Baker needs to be introduced to Mr. Kettle when he starts talking about having a clue as to what these institutions do:
Here is the press release from NLIHC including Obama’s praise for treating Fannie Mae like a Charity instead of a Business:http://www.nlihc.org/detail/article.cfm?article_id=5158
“..The manager’s amendment to the bill, offered by Senator Dodd, included a provision championed by Senator Jack Reed (D-RI) that would create a Housing Trust Fund. The bill provides that funds from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will go into the Housing Trust Fund and that other funding sources that Congress designates may also go into the fund in the future. Furthermore, the amendment would require that 75% of funds go to extremely low income families and that the balance of Housing Trust Fund resources benefit very low income families, with income up to 50% of area median. At least 90% of the funds are for rental housing.
“I am pleased we were able to reach a bipartisan agreement to create more affordable housing, help people keep their homes, and strengthen the regulation of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac,” Senator Reed said in a press release. “I have been working on creating an affordable housing fund for years. It is important for families to have access to affordable housing, and that’s why I’m pleased that today’s compromise will set aside new money to build affordable housing in all 50 states.”...”
Here is the Obamao:
“..Senator Barack Obama (D-IL), a cosponsor of the National Affordable Housing Trust Fund Act (S. 2523), also lauded the Committee’s work. “The Committee adopted new reforms of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and created a permanent trust fund to help provide affordable housing for the low income families who need it most,” Senator Obama said.
In addition to the provision that creates a permanent Housing Trust Fund, the GSE bill establishes a regulator to ensure that the GSEs continue to maintain their affordable housing mission with safe and sound requirements.”
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