Posted on 09/23/2008 2:34:16 PM PDT by markomalley
Over the past few weeks I've been skeptical of claims by Rep. Barney Frank, chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, that he's been a consistent and leading voice for reform of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the two government-sponsored home-lending giants whose fall is the immediate cause of the current financial turmoil. The Massachusetts Democrat and I went at it here and here and here. Now, finally, Frank acknowledges that he dismissed ample warnings about Fannie and Freddie shenanigans five years ago.
Here's an exchange with CNN's John Roberts yesterday:
ROBERTS: Congressman, you know, a lot—big question that people asking is, how do we get to this point here. And minority leader John Boehner there in the House has pointed fingers at Senator Chris Dodd and you four years ago opposing reform of entities like Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
The Wall Street Journal says in the year 2000 when Representative Richard Baker proposed Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac reform you dismissed it. New York Times reports that an administration proposal in 2003 to reform Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac was met by response from you where you said, "I do not believe that we're facing any kind of crisis." Were you responsible for the delay—
FRANK: Of course not. Can I make a point here?
ROBERTS: Yes.
FRANK: In 2000 and 2003, who was in control of Congress? The Republicans—Mr. Boehner. The Democrats were in the minority. And yes, I did not think we were facing a crisis in 2003. But that didn't mean we didn't have to have reforms. Here's the deal. ...
(Excerpt) Read more at usnews.com ...
Not a good choice of words when you're talking about Barney Frank.....
Now call for him to resign? You’d better bet they’d be doing it to Republicans if this was turned around. The GOP is set to mess up the opportunity of a lifetime. The Democrats stood in the way of the reform of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac proposed by John McCain, the vote went down on party line vote. This is not a time for bipartisanship. This is a time to lay the blame where it is deserved!
Frank then goes on to his now standard lament that a Republican-controlled Congress failed to produce reform and that it was only under his Democratic stewardship that the siblings were reined in. Leaving aside that the 2007 reforms were hardly the stuff that was needed, Frank shows uncharacteristic modesty. While the White House was unable to push through meaningful reforms five years ago, that’s in good part because Frank did his best to thwart them.
::::::::::::::::::::
We know who was responsible for SUPPRESSING any meaningful reform. We know who got a BUNCH of money from FM/FM in the form of “campaign contributions” to NOT make reforms.
How stupid do these criminals think at least half of the American public is?
Frank, on Freddie’s Fanny - nice image there, I tell you...
BTT.
Now he just needs to admit that it was also his party, with a charge led by Biden, that killed McCain’s bill in 05 that would have fixed this..
OBTW... Frank and Dodd should be ‘frogmarched’ right up wall street in orange jumpsuits..
The Diversity Recession, or How Affirmative Action Helped Cause the Housing Crisis
Posted by Steve Sailer on June 22, 2008
While I agree with regard to Barney, a man I have wanted to receive the boot for a long long time, it sticks in my craw that the Republicans were the majority from 1994 to 2006, and they failed to take measures to prevent this. Did they fix things? Why the hell not? Seriously!
This isn’t the only topic BTW.
Look, I detest the Barney Frank and company ideologues. That being said, I simply cannot ignore that this festered for years under a Republican President and Congress.
A pox on both these parties. This is ultimately nothing less than a betrayal of the public trust, and our boys as well as their boys did it to us.
Frank should have been booted more than a decade ago. A number of others from the left and right should have followed along right behind him. And perhaps the worst thing about what is taking place right now, is that it will not be made clear who is ultimately responsible here, and they will continue to remain on the job developing still more bad policy and debt to saddle us with.
Washington is a maggot infested cesspool.
Clean is a relative term.
Control, yes, filibuster proof, no. They may have been in the majority, but not > 60 or 66 votes to prevent being thwarted. There were many issues they needed the senior members for, and they were the ones blocking any investigations into Freddie/Fannie
At least that's the way the MSM would put it.
Will...Not...Touch...That
I would say his admission is tepid at best. He mostly points at Bohnerand the Bush administration despite 17 frontal attempts by Bush to warn of Fan/Fred debaucle coming down the pike. Barney needs to be drawn and quartered and his members sent to the 4 corners of the earth.
The people don't hold these morons responsible and that is where we need to mobilize and start watch dogging these buffoons.
It certainly is - bunch of self-anointed elites feeding at the public trough, enriching themselves while telling us how to live and confiscating our money under penalty of prison or worse.
Now call for him to resign? You’d better bet they’d be doing it to Republicans if this was turned around. The GOP is set to mess up the opportunity of a lifetime. The Democrats stood in the way of the reform of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac proposed by John McCain, the vote went down on party line vote. This is not a time for bipartisanship. This is a time to lay the blame where it is deserved!
DITTO! And I hope Sarah gets out there and DOES IT! It NEEDS to be made CLEAR to ALL AMERICANS just where the blame should be placed!
The left comes up with many voices and shouts loudly.
We come up with very few sound voices, and we can’t shout as loudly.
I give them credit where credit is due. They shout racism until they get what they want. And then when bad loans take down the system, we don’t remind folks what took place.
Yes, we should watch these buffoons and out them.
Still, we do an awful lot of that already. These folks still find a way to screw us.
Yes, I agree.
Barney Fag: Which year was Raines fired?
Yes I wrote F-A-G.
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