I notice that back then McCain was not in favor of abolishing government interference in these entities, but was in favor of more ‘regulation’ just like the other day he slams wall street for ‘greed’. He is right when he says he is clueless about economics. He is also clueless about conservatism and basic fundementals of human freedom.
He was in favor of transferring the regulatory authority from a congressional agency that was rubber-stamping everything Fanny and Freddy did to an agency within the Treasury department that would actually apply banking regulation standards to these two entities. He was for reforming the regulatory environment to rein in the excesses and abuses that were going on at Fanny and Freddy. Conservatism does not equal the total absence of regulation, and neither does freedom.
Uh, we are paying a price today of $250 billion because the Fannie Mae’s and Countrywides of the world didnt know how to properly value these toxic junk on their books and created them as a way to hand out cheap, subprime loans that should never have been written.
If we listened to John McCain, the regs on these companies would be a bit tighter but not onerous (it would only stop them from doing stupid and risky loans) and the taxpayer would be a lot better off. by about $300 billion.
I think you need to look at the facts before knee-jerking that you know his reforms would be bad. In fact, McCain was as right on this matter as he was on the surge and Iraq!!