Yes, the Dems dragged their feet on this one. When Shelby chaired the Senate Banking Committee, they made progress. But when the Dems won the Senate back, the corrupt Chris Dodd stalled all progress. Look at Fannie Mae’s contributions to Chris Dodd!
In “defense” of Fannie and Freddie, Bear Stearns, Lehman Bros (aka, Lemur Bros), Merrill Lynch and AIG have all crashed or are crashing and have nothing to do with Fannie and Freddie.
The Repubs screwed up by focusing so intently on F&F that their own “friends,” BS, Lehman, ML and AIG, were allowed to become dangerous (a systemic risk).
So, while I agree with Mike Church and others that government should not be in the mortgage market, government should not be in mortgage market through bailouts of Wall Street firms either.
>>In “defense” of Fannie and Freddie, Bear Stearns, Lehman Bros (aka, Lemur Bros), Merrill Lynch and AIG have all crashed or are crashing and have nothing to do with Fannie and Freddie.
You should reconsider that. Bear Sterns was in the game they were in at least partially because of Freddie/Fannie guarantees.
See this for an interesting bit of history on that:
First Union, Bear, Stearns Price Securities Offering Backed By Affordable Mortgages (1997)
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2090118/posts