Posted on 06/18/2009 9:57:48 AM PDT by 2nd amendment mama
The Obama administration’s latest financial regulatory reform proposal contains a stunning surprise hidden on page 67: “Rigorous application of the Community Reinvestment Act should be a core function of the CFPA.”
The Community Reinvestment Act, or CRA, should be a core function of the CFPA or the Consumer Financial Protection Agency.
Along with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac at the very epicenter of the financial meltdown last year, the CRA is one of the vehicles used to inveigle, incent or threaten banks into lowering their lending standards to provide home loans to those who simply cannot afford them. According to his proposal, Obama’s new financial regulatory reform promotes more of the same disastrous policy.
Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas), the lone member of Congress on the Congressional Oversight Panel for the TARP program, pointed out in dissent to the January Special Report on Regulatory Reform: “Perhaps the most damaging initiative undertaken by the federal government was the effort to pressure private financial institutions to subsidize home ownership through the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA). Undertaken with the best of intentions -- expanding home ownership among poor and underserved communities -- the unintended consequences of the CRA clearly demonstrate that government’s attempts to manipulate market behavior to achieve social goals often lead to harmful results.
“Enacted in 1977, the CRA encouraged banks to extend credit to ‘underserved’ populations by requiring that banks insured by the federal government ‘help meet the credit needs of its entire community.’ To ensure that banks are meeting this mandate, each federally-insured bank is periodically examined by its federal regulator. As a result of its enactment, bank lending to low- and moderate-income families has increased by 80 percent.”
It would appear the Obama solution to “regulatory reform” is another sub-prime meltdown brought to you by more government thuggery forcing financial institutions to give home loans to even more people who can’t afford to pay their mortgages.
Price Goes Nuclear
The Hill newspaper reported late last week that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) was considering using White House-directed Office of Management and Budget (OMB) numbers to lower the price tag on Democrats’ staggeringly expensive health care boondoggles. The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has released a preliminary score on the first of the Democrats’ health care plans, and it’s a political and financial disaster for the Democrats. Early estimates of only the partial plan that does not yet include Democrats’ much-desired government takeover of health care came in at a whopping $1 trillion.
In response to the report of the consideration of use of OMB numbers, Rep. Tom Price (R-Ga.), Chairman of the Republican Study Committee and a former orthopedic surgeon, fired off a letter to Pelosi objecting to the sleight-of-hand on the health care numbers.
“To allow the White House to inject its political will into this process by cooking the books would be a contemptible move and would be met critically by House conservatives,” Price said in the letter. “Should the majority attempt to ram a health care package through Congress without providing honest accounting to the American people, all parliamentary and procedural tools afforded the minority party would be on the table to highlight this egregious move to deceive the American people.”
Now, here’s the rub.
Politico is reporting that Pelosi spokesman Nadeam Elshami denied the existence of any Pelosi-OMB plot, saying, “The health bill will be scored by CBO and any other suggestion to the contrary is simply not accurate. CBO is working hard to get the numbers the committees need to make informed decisions.”
How can anyone possibly discern whether the Speaker is telling the truth? Her reckless public accusations against the CIA, saying they lied to Congress, and her refusal to allow an investigation into whether or not CIA agents did in fact break the law leaves any critically thinking person confident in the fact that it was Pelosi who lied to the public about what she knew and when she knew it. Her credibility is in doubt every single time she says something is “not accurate.”
RSC Launches Sunset Caucus
The Republican Study Committee (RSC) has launched a new, bold effort to identify government programs that have outlived their usefulness, if they ever had any to begin with, and end them. Co-chaired by Rep. Kevin Brady (R-Texas) and Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah), the Sunset Caucus is “a new, permanent subset of the RSC committed to protecting taxpayers and shrinking the size of government -- one wasteful, duplicative, or unnecessary program at a time,” as stated in the announcement. The caucus is comprised of 42 members of the RSC and growing.
Each member of the Sunset Caucus has made a commitment to, “Adopt one or more federal program they believe has outlived its usefulness or never should have been enacted; publicly champion the repeal or de-funding of the program(s); offer an amendment during the relevant appropriations bill to defund the program(s); and introduce stand alone legislation to sunset the targeted program(s).”
“I picked as my first program what is dubiously called ‘The Educational Cultural Apprenticeship and Exchange Program for Alaskan Natives, Native Hawaiians and the Historical Whaling and Trading Partners in Massachusetts,’” Brady, one of the caucus co-chairs, said at the announcement. “Let me tell you what that is: $8.75 million a year of your tax dollars are wasted connecting whalers in Massachusetts with their ancestors in Alaska and Hawaii. That’s equivalent of taking a small town in rural America with 2,000 people and taking every dollar they pay to Uncle Sam and putting it in this wasteful federal program.”
“This right here is the most dangerous credit card on the face of the planet,” said Chaffetz, the other of the caucus co-chairs. “It’s the voting card of the United States Congress. There seems to be no limit, no repercussions and no penalties for overusing this card. … It is not Congress’s money; it’s the people’s money. … I appreciate participating in this caucus, I look forward to it growing and participating and eliminating wasteful spending.”
Specific programs and subsidies targeted for elimination by the Sunset Caucus are a prime list of government waste. They include:
The unspent portion of the Economic Stimulus Package, the Presidential Election Fund, Americorps, the National Endowment for the Arts, Amtrak, the Nuclear Waste Fund, the Visa Lottery Program, Funding for GOP and Democrat Conventions, Farm Subsidies for Mohair, the Legal Services Corporation, the International Fund for Ireland, Enhancing Education Through Technology, Education Department Attache in Paris, Sugar Subsidies, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Educational, Cultural, Apprenticeship, and Exchange Programs for Alaska Natives, Native Hawaiians, and Their Historical Trading Partners in Massachusetts, Funding for Official Federal Employee Work Time for the Use of Union Activities, Coast Guard's LORAN-C Radio Investigation System, Payments to Palau to take Gitmo Detainees, Corporation for Public Broadcasting, Local Government Climate Change Grants, Repeal of Davis-Bacon, and many more.
I’m sure this will be all over the evening news.
Why am I not surprised.
One good idea John McCain did have last year was to dismantle Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and turn them into seven regional, private banks.
They have “opened the door” with the CRA stuff.
It is time to hit back very hard!
Giving mortgages to everyone with a pulse is what got us into this mess!
And to think there are people out there who don’t give it a second thought when Obama and his band of malicious pranksters shout that they need to get this legislation passed TOMORROW, if not TODAY!
The initial problem was that the US had too much debt. Obama's solution was to borrow trillions of dollars so that we could get out of debt. This makes no sense.
Yesterday, Obama complained about complicated financial forms with lots of fineprint. People got suckered into bad decisions because they couldn't handle the paperwork. Obama's solution: Create a new federal agency, and enact lots of new regulations in an effort to cut back on paperwork. It makes no sense.
Today we have an reminder that the Mortgage meltdown was a big problem. Obama's solution: Force additional lending to people whom we know will not be able to pay their mortgage. It makes no sense.
His actions only make sense if he is trying to overload and destroy this nation. Apply Occam's Razor.
THAT LIEING CHEATING SON OF A BITCH!
ACORN employees will be the primary recipients of these loans.....which will then be forgiven or the homes flipped for huge profits.
Anything this big and effecting every citizen of this country should be left to the people. If the people vote no, then it goes away.
Got that, bankers? You go to jail no matter what you do. And Zero will dictate your salary, too.
Obama isn't called "the Man of Lawlessness" for nothing!
Obama, and every crooked Democrat involved with the CRA,CFPA should be impeached, charged with treason, tarred and feathered, and either given a ticket to sit on Sparky or rot in prison for life- no parole life.
They must have a data base attached to our credit rating system which show your race, because lenders who take on line application have no way of knowing your race. They can make assumptions from your address, but there must be data base of your race..somwhere.
I think Obama has a more racially motivated intentions, the vast majority of those loans will be given to blacks who no way on earth should be given a 100 dollar loan, never mind a $250,000+ loan to buy up housing in better neighborhoods. THEN he will forgive all those loans, at whitey the taxpayers expense. Like Jihad, reparations can have many forms.
I too am waiting for this to get covered on ABCNNBCBS ....
The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result!!
I might presume anyone named something like Chlamydia Washington is a member of a minority
i am sure it will be in der fuhrer's medical database - the one der fuhrer is having ge create - the no bid contract database
place of employment_______________
position___________
years worked for this employer_____________
where you ever convicted of a fenony offence? Y___N___ education_________________
part of the loan application
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