Posted on 01/04/2009 7:46:57 AM PST by Libloather
Many democrats kept the facts hidden about Fannie and Freddie for a long time wjile the executives of those entities lined their own pockets with millions upon millions of dollars. The policies enforced by these agencies together with the combined effects from the CRA coerced banks and financial institutions to provide home loans to people they knew could never possibly afford them. No down payments, the lack of due diligence, the purposeful neglect of sound banking and financial practices, looking the other way, ignoring or even altering qualifying financial information, usury, outright fraud included in the ARMs and other loans made the housing and mortgage bubble collapse not only possible but inevitable. Conspirators and complicit in these lies about Fannie and Freddie are Barney Frank, Chris Dodd, Chuck Schumer (who also was partly responsible for the collapse of INDYMAC) and many other democrats who not only kept silent but even praised Fannie and Freddie as good investment opportunities and this was just a few months before these two entities collapsed altogether. These two entities, the CRA and the aforementioned democrats are the ones mainly responsible for causing the ctash of the housing and mortgage industry.
Rep. Charles Rangel, already embroiled in an ethics committee probe, used campaign funds to pay $1,540 in fines from parking tickets in Washington during the past two years, according to a report on the Congressional Quarterly’s Web site.
The New York Democrat’s campaign committee and his political action committee have made 14 separate payments to the D.C. treasurer for “automobile expenses” since March 2007, and a Rangel spokesman confirmed to CQ that campaign aides believe they were for parking tickets.
Overall, the House Ways and Means Committee chairman has paid $2,035 in parking ticket fines since 2001.
It is not illegal for Rangel to use campaign funds to pay for parking tickets if they were incurred while he was engaged in campaign activities or carrying out his duties as an officeholder.
But it is illegal to use contributions “to fulfill any commitment, obligation or expense of a person that would exist irrespective of the candidate’s election campaign or individual’s duties as a holder of federal office,” including a “non-campaign-related automobile expense,” according to federal campaign finance law.
Rangel’s spokesman Emile Milne told the Web site, CQ Politics, that the congressman is in compliance with the law, but could not provide details on each of the tickets.
CQ notes: “Regardless of any potential legal issues, the congressman is paying parking tickets with other people’s money.”
Last year Rangel’s car was towed from the House garage after the New York Post disclosed that he had been storing the undrivable vehicle there for several years, in violation of House rules.
The Post also reported that Rangel was using a Cadillac leased by his taxpayer-funded House office to travel to campaign events in New York — also a violation of House rules.
The Washington Post and The New York Times both called on Rangel to step down as chairman of the Ways and Means Committee in the wake of ethics charges that recently came to light.
The Times disclosed that Rangel helped preserve a valuable tax loophole for an oil and gas drilling company while the firm’s chief executive was promising to donate $1 million to the Charles B. Rangel School of Public Service at City College of New York.
The House Ethics Committee is investigating allegations that Rangel paid below-market rents on four apartments in New York, including one that was used illegally as a campaign office.
It also is alleged that he failed to pay tens of thousands of dollars in taxes on rental income from a vacation home in the Dominican Republic, and used official letterhead stationery to solicit donations to the public service school.
Rep. Charles Rangel, already embroiled in an ethics committee probe, used campaign funds to pay $1,540 in fines from parking tickets in Washington during the past two years, according to a report on the Congressional Quarterly’s Web site.
The New York Democrat’s campaign committee and his political action committee have made 14 separate payments to the D.C. treasurer for “automobile expenses” since March 2007, and a Rangel spokesman confirmed to CQ that campaign aides believe they were for parking tickets.
Overall, the House Ways and Means Committee chairman has paid $2,035 in parking ticket fines since 2001.
It is not illegal for Rangel to use campaign funds to pay for parking tickets if they were incurred while he was engaged in campaign activities or carrying out his duties as an officeholder.
But it is illegal to use contributions “to fulfill any commitment, obligation or expense of a person that would exist irrespective of the candidate’s election campaign or individual’s duties as a holder of federal office,” including a “non-campaign-related automobile expense,” according to federal campaign finance law.
Rangel’s spokesman Emile Milne told the Web site, CQ Politics, that the congressman is in compliance with the law, but could not provide details on each of the tickets.
CQ notes: “Regardless of any potential legal issues, the congressman is paying parking tickets with other people’s money.”
Last year Rangel’s car was towed from the House garage after the New York Post disclosed that he had been storing the undrivable vehicle there for several years, in violation of House rules.
The Post also reported that Rangel was using a Cadillac leased by his taxpayer-funded House office to travel to campaign events in New York — also a violation of House rules.
The Washington Post and The New York Times both called on Rangel to step down as chairman of the Ways and Means Committee in the wake of ethics charges that recently came to light.
The Times disclosed that Rangel helped preserve a valuable tax loophole for an oil and gas drilling company while the firm’s chief executive was promising to donate $1 million to the Charles B. Rangel School of Public Service at City College of New York.
The House Ethics Committee is investigating allegations that Rangel paid below-market rents on four apartments in New York, including one that was used illegally as a campaign office.
It also is alleged that he failed to pay tens of thousands of dollars in taxes on rental income from a vacation home in the Dominican Republic, and used official letterhead stationery to solicit donations to the public service school.
Barack Obama said during his campaign that congressional earmarks should be reined in, but his choice for Transportation secretary, retiring Rep. Ray LaHood, is one of the leading purveyors of pork in the House.
In fiscal 2008, the Illinois Republican secured $62.7 million in earmarks for his district, either alone or working with other House members, according to Taxpayers for Common Sense.
That put him in the top 10 percent of House members when it came to pork barrel outlays, the Wall Street Journal reported in an opinion piece headlined “Obama’s Secretary of Earmarks.”
LaHood, a member of the House Appropriations Committee, makes no bones about his efforts to bring home the bacon to his district, which includes Peoria.
He told the Peoria Journal Star: “The reason I went on the Appropriations Committee, the reason other people go on the Appropriations Committee, is they know that it puts them in a position to know where the money is at, to know the people who are doling the money out and to be in the room when the money is being doled out.”
The Journal observed: “Mr. Obama repeatedly said during the presidential campaign that the earmarking system should be overhauled, yet he’s elevated to his cabinet a Machiavelli of this system.”
LaHood, first elected in 1994, is not on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee now, although he has been in the past. As a member of the Appropriations Committee he did not work on transportation funding.
But with Obama “planning what looks to be one of the largest single increases in federal spending in history,” the Journal reports, “Mr. LaHood may be exactly the man for the moment.”
What a coinky-dink! Kind of like the timing of the collapse right before the election.
Too sadly true!
Barney Frank is one of the Democrats who pushed the hardest to create the conditions that caused the problems in the financial markets. He’s acting now like he’s gonna be the one who saves the markets. Gag.
So far it's been shovel money out the door!!! To their campaign contributors!!!
When you get time, SuziQ, look up how many on mccains election staff were paid lobbyists for Freddie and Fanny. There were paid to lobby against and prevent regulations.
No party's clean in this mess!!
Fannie and Freddie were creations of Congress, and it was Congress's responsibility to oversee their actions.
At least that part is correct, the republicans were awol on overseeing anything, other than what the rich boys told them to look at. And McCain's campaign manager was making 15,000.00 a month lobbying against regulation.
Of course they were engineered. They have used the same strategy to screw up the health care system (by encouraging HMOs and other prepaid plans) in order to achieve their ultimate goal: Socialization.
I read that Bawdy Fwank says he foresees that “everything will come out all right in the end”...pretty soon. As someone who hosted a sodomite whorehouse in his residence a few years back, I guess he knows what he’s talking about.
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