Tuesday, September 30, 2008
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Bill Clinton Fibbing on Fannie ...
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Posted by:
Matt Lewis at
8:56 AM
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Bill Clinton has been getting a lot of press lately for trashing his own party’s handling of the mortgage mess. Last Thursday, he told Good Morning America, “I think that the responsibility that the Democrats have may rest more in resisting any efforts by the Republicans in Congress, or by me when I was President, to put some standards and tighten up a little on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.”
Unfortunately, he was fibbing.
He actually set the “standards” that forced Fannie and Freddie to make bad loans. In 1999, the L.A. Times noted that “Under Clinton, bank regulators have breathed the first real life into the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA), a 20-year old statute meant to combat ‘redlining’ by requiring banks to serve their low-income communities.”
The CRA said banks had an “obligation” to lend to “victims of discrimination in borrowing”, meaning low-income people who couldn’t pay off their mortgages. ‘CRA ratings’ are taken into account whenever banks apply to open new branches or merge, and there are fines for non-compliance. The Clinton Administration put out tougher CRA regulations in 1995, forcing banks to issue more and more risky loans.
The Clintonistas went even further. In 1999, the New York Times reported that, “the Department of Housing and Urban Development proposed that by the year 2001, 50 percent of Fannie Mae’s and Freddie Mac’s portfolio be made up of loans to low and moderate-income borrowers. Last year, 44 percent of the loans Fannie Mae purchased were from these groups.”
President Clinton definitely put the screws to the lending industry, but the only things he “tightened up” were the nooses around Fannie and Freddie’s necks. Then again, it wasn’t all his fault. He had a lot of help from his liberal friends in Congress.
Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), Chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, has been covering up for Fannie and Freddie since 1992. Labeled by the Wall Street Journal as “Fannie Mae’s Patron Saint”, he said in 2000 that that concerns about the two companies were “overblown”.
In 2002, he claimed that they were “not problems” but rather “great assets”, and in 2003 (when Freddie Mac faced a Multibillion dollar scandal), he said “I do not think we are facing any kind of crisis”. To top it all off, he said last year that an independent regulator for the bloated behemoths would be an “inane” idea.
In the Senate, Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd (D-Conn.), was leading the charge. Just last year, he wanted to lift caps on how many mortgages Fannie and Freddie could purchase. He also wanted President Bush to “immediately reconsider his ill-advised” suggestion of an independent regulator. Of course, Dodd was also on of the Senate’s top four recipients of campaign Fannie and Freddie campaign donations, so you might say that he had a good reason to be wearing rose colored glasses.
Clinton, Frank, and Dodd are now among the legions of Democrats blaming the others for this mess. But if they really want to point fingers, they should direct their ire toward the men they see in the mirror every morning ...
Townhall's Adam Brickley contributed to this post.
Update: Mona Charen has written a little item on ACORN and Obama which dovetails this post Ken Blackwell has a good column on the topic, as well.. Also, above, I pointed out that the actions of several high-profile Democrats are directly connected to the meltdown we are currently witnessing unfold, but that ACORN — for which Obama used to work (according to the Charen piece) — is also connected to it, and so are other Obama associates beyond the organization and his fellow Democrats. Penny Pritzker would be a prime example of one of them.
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Your average citizen is incapable of comprehending these facts being they have no clue how the financial markets work. This only fuels the fire being they feel they were “wronged” by the government when they lose their home, even though they had maxed out their credit cards they acquired from establishing credit with house payments.
Not that they could “afford” the house payments to begin with, but having to pay credit cards on top of it just sent them down the road of no return. Now it is everyone’s fault but their own because they have been “discriminated against” once again in their feeble minds.
The Democrats changed the system and put the country at risk of financial disaster to please the affirmative action cry babies, who were unqualified to obtain these loans to begin with, to get their votes, and this is the RESULT.
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As usual, short on the facts.
You went from subprime loans being 2% of total loans in 2002 to 30% of total loans in 2006.
There was no drastic increase during the 90s.
What happened from 2002 to 2006? The Republicans controlled the trifecta, the Senate, the House and the White House.
In addition, those loans were packaged into CDOs rated AAA, which led the
investment-banking firms [buying them] to do little to no due diligence, and the securities were distributed throughout the world, where they started defaulting.
A democratic administration would never have been asleep at the switch in allowing such a dramatic increase in the loans or their triple A rating.
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Clinton made that statement to stick it to Obama and more importantly work on his LEGACY! |
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Lying going on. Clinton, Dodd, Franks, Pelosi, Obama....We could go on for a while.
I am so sick of listening to them talk about how we could be hurt and how they just want to protect mainstreet. I am bored with the spin that this is all the Republicans fault.
I would rather we face this crisis squarely and fix the cause than pass on endless bad debt, oppressive taxes and a socialist government to our children. |
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for $700billion "we the people" should get to see Barney Frank hauled off in cuffs. Same goes for Chris Dodd, and while we are at it let's throw in Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid.
Sarah Palin is being tortured - while Nancy Pelosi the 3rd in line probably has a personal approval rating of 5 (that would be family and close friends). Joe Biden is the person that no one wanted near the White House several times already he was told thanks, but no thanks - he would be a walking gaff machine and pretty dangerous at best.
The Dems live in a alternate solar system. |
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that I agree with.
Here's News on a new Plan.Republican Study Committee Alternative Plan;http://mikepence.house.gov/News/DocumentSingle.aspx?DocumentID=104038 |
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but a lot of "greedy" mortgage lenders are democrats. There are 3 houses in my neighborhood that were foreclosed. All 3 were bought by people that really couldn't afford them and would not have qualified 20 years ago |
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Does anyone remember the Enron debacle? Or how loudly the democrats screamed from all the rooftops that there must be justice, heads need to roll, throw the bums in jail and throw away the key, etc? Well that is exactly what needs to happen here, top of the list should be Barney Frank (hey Barney can be everyones bitc- in prison) and Chris Dodd. Then Nancy Pelosi as an accessory before during and after the fact. These shills make me ill.
They allowed this to take place, whether in control or out of control of the house and senate. While not in control the dims fought every bill that was presented to clean up Freddie and Fannie. During their control they were more concerned with hearings on how to impeach Bush and punishing baseball players for using steroids, than they were about keeping America solvent.
The partisanship is sickening and we as Americans need to clean house immediately. No incumbents need return to their cushy offices on the hill. It is time for entirely new blood in both parties in both chambers. |
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They know he lied - then and as often as he feels is necessary to gather their adulation. The know and they like his lies. They see the direction in which the country is headed as well as any Repub, Independent, etc., and they are happy about it. The economy, our educational system, our families, our churches, our Judeo-Christian heritage are under attack by the left, the Dems, whatever. They hate us and they love this lying snakeoil salesman. Dadgummit, poor Bill - he can't figure out if he loves or hates Obama. He's jealous 'cause he's not in the limelight, but he admires his audacity. May the truth set us free - from the Dems!! |
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Matt can you comment on the 2005 reform bill that the House Financial Services Committee and the house passed that the president failed to support? I just heard about it and would like to know more, i.e. if the White House themselves missed an opportunity to squash this problem. |
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Say it ain't so!
Oh no!
That's right. He lied under oath to the Senate during his impeachment.
And the Lame Stream Media believes him! |
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Once again the dems have shown they are not fit to hold ANY office. When you tie in what the dems have done in the past, their efforts to 20% of the supposed bail out to ACORN, and that Obama worked for ACORN should be enough to destroy his chances to be POTUS. I can only hope that McCain staff will tie all this together and lay this turd at Obama's door. Plus one can also look at Obama's attempt to have the Department of Justice investigate a conservative for an ad post against him and the recent activity in St. Louis to see that if the dems have control that true free speach will be put down. It is time for americans to wake up and vote the dems out of every office and keep America the way our founding father intended it to be. |
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At least Rush Limbaugh is talking and educating the public that Clinton and Democrats are responsible for the sub-prime/mortgage meltdown! |
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creating this mess. So what is America about to do? Reward the Dems and put them in control of House, Senate and White House and punish the conservatives.
Becareful what you wish for. |
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As it stand now the Demcrat Barney Franks should go and a full investigation launched into his dealings with Fannie and Freddie. |
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