Posted on 11/16/2011 8:46:30 AM PST by TitansAFC
Speaker Gingrich’s consulting firm, The Gingrich Group, was retained in 2006 by Freddie Mac. To be clear, Speaker Gingrich did no lobbying of any kind, nor did his firm. This was expressly written into the Gingrich Group contracts. Instead, the Gingrich Group was hired to offer strategic advice to Freddie Mac on a number of issues.
Speaker Gingrich has always believed that America should have programs to help low income people acquire the ability to buy homes. However, as a conservative, he also believed they have to be within a context of learning how to budget and save which makes it possible for the poor to afford what they were purchasing.
Therefore, on numerous occasions in meetings with Freddie Mac, Speaker Gingrich advised that a business model that involved lending money to people with bad credit and no money down was unsustainable and a bubble, and that it was dangerous to buy securities made up of these mortgages.
The Gingrich Group also offered advice on how Freddie Mac could lower their health costs. One piece of advice offered was that Freddie Mac had the resources to adopt a Travelocity model website for prescription drugs that would inform their employees of lower cost drug alternatives.
In addition, Freddie Mac was interested in advice on how to reach out to more conservatives. The Gingrich Group stressed that Freddie Mac must be open to reform of their lending practices but that by stressing the historical success of public-private partnerships in achieving public goods at a minimum of taxpayer money and bureaucracy.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2808130/posts
Nice try, haters!
Newt’s being interviewed by Laura Ingraham NOW.
“Speaker Gingrich has always believed that America should have programs to help low income people acquire the ability to buy homes.”
Yeah, it’s called freedom. The freedom to work, earn, save. The freedom to improve yourself so that you can work smarter, earn more, save more.
And so the spin begins.
Apparently the Newter was doing some sessions with Freddie and Fannie to help them cozy up to Republican lawmakers.
Then when things went south, Newt suddenly joined the chorus of critics of his former ‘employer’.
He was doing history for Freddie Mac. That is what this statement means. The company (Freddie) explains what Gingrich was doing:
"develop an argument on behalf of the company’s public-private structure that would resonate with conservatives seeking to dismantle it"
Gingrich was supposed to find out and tell the story of what Freddie had been up to in a way that conservatives could understand and, hopefully, appreciate.
There is no lie here at all.
Besides, if this is the best they can come up with, then bring on Manny Pacquiao
Well when the smears started on Cain some jumped on board to discredit him, now the same is happening to Gingrich, Newt is no more guilty that Cain.
STOP BUYING INTO THE MSM SMEARS OF CONSERVATIVES.
It never ceases to amaze me how self-professed Conservatives can glom on to someone like Gingrich over and over and over and over again. When Newt has been fully outed, folks will find anther idiot to take his place. Sad really...
Granted, the guy is great on the sound-bite. It’s when it comes to implementation that the wheels fall off his facade.
Newt does a lot of stuff he should know better than doing, if he fully believed what he spouted when the public was listening.
Nice article. I’m sure Newt approved it.
Why no mention of the millions of bucks in salary Newt earned?
I see nothing nefarious about what Newt did, but I still don’t like it. It reeks of inside the Beltway, back-scratching nonsense.
Newt should not have accepted $300K in tax-payer dollars for consulting for a moribund bureaucracy.
I’m voting for Newt in the primaries and against Obama in the general.
Sounds dumb to me. The same characteristics that cause such individuals to be low-income are likely to make them incompatible with responsible home ownership.
You’re not going to get from that, though.
As much as I like Cain, too, even he was an actual LOBBYIST.
We have no complete outsider this time around.
I was listening and he gave good answers. Laura is a hard questioner.
BIG difference between being a lobbyist for some Restaurant Association and Fannie & Freddie.
bttt
The issue isn’t dishonesty, it’s that he wants government programs to help the poor buy homes. Even worse, he wants to have the government provide training in budgeting, savings, etc., to go along with it.
Every one of Gingrich’s solutions seems to involve an even bigger role for the government. E.g., not only to we keep extending unemployment benefits, but we add yet more new ‘job training’ programs to go along with it. He’s a progressive in the progressive tradition.
Not that I can suggest any of the other candidates running are necessarily better. (Though I am almost feeling like it’s time to look at Santorum and revisit Bachmann...)
Well, that depends on who’s doing the writing.
Among Cain’s lobbying issus was allowing people to drive with more alcohol intheir blood.
On the surface, harmless. But imagine how it gets written-up.
BTW - Newt was not a lobbyist, but an adviser.
Odd you did not think it was "Being a hater" when you were doing this to Cain.
But wait a minute! This statement you just posted from Newt is different then what Newt said in the debate last Wed!
Which is the true story? What he said in the debate or this you just posted? Seems Newt is changing his story.
There is NOTHING wrong with being a consultant. Many former congressman and senators do it. Our govt hires consultants all the time...many are ex military and they are all paid high dollar. Fox News was paying Newt 1 MILLION a year but he was fired as was Santorum after they announced their candidacy for president. Let the facts and truth come out...btw I heard Rollins singing Newts praises this morning on Fox News. He stated Newt is the most intelligent on the constitution, laws and in the debates. Let Newt come out and explain. I see where he is UP in NH now too.
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