Small business ownership is also up. Low-income communities have become more attractive to outside investors, and more able to support community redevelopment efforts. And in places where people once cashed their paychecks at the convenience store and depended on payday loans, there are now full-service bank branches offering the same affordable financial services people in better neighborhoods take for granted. The Republicans like to talk about the "ownership society." There is no ownership without access to capital. For 30 years, the CRA has been making private capital available to qualified people who want to bootstrap themselves into home and business ownership, and a secure place in the middle class.

6 of 11 Racist Lies Republicans Tell to Avoid Blaming Wall Street for the Financial Crisis. The CRA is just another failed liberal handout program. No. The benefits of CRA have been substantial. Robert Rubin recently estimated that the law has channeled upwards of one trillion dollars into distressed neighborhoods across the country -- including both inner cities and rural areas without much access to investment funds. In these areas, home ownership is up -- and with it, the local tax base, which means more parks, more cops, more street repairs, and so on. There's more decent rental housing, too, because landlords can get loans for upgrades and improvements.

Small business ownership is also up. Low-income communities have become more attractive to outside investors, and more able to support community redevelopment efforts. And in places where people once cashed their paychecks at the convenience store and depended on payday loans, there are now full-service bank branches offering the same affordable financial services people in better neighborhoods take for granted. The Republicans like to talk about the "ownership society." There is no ownership without access to capital. For 30 years, the CRA has been making private capital available to qualified people who want to bootstrap themselves into home and business ownership, and a secure place in the middle class.

6 of 11 Racist Lies Republicans Tell to Avoid Blaming Wall Street for the Financial Crisis. The CRA is just another failed liberal handout program. No. The benefits of CRA have been substantial. Robert Rubin recently estimated that the law has channeled upwards of one trillion dollars into distressed neighborhoods across the country -- including both inner cities and rural areas without much access to investment funds. In these areas, home ownership is up -- and with it, the local tax base, which means more parks, more cops, more street repairs, and so on. There's more decent rental housing, too, because landlords can get loans for upgrades and improvements.

Small business ownership is also up. Low-income communities have become more attractive to outside investors, and more able to support community redevelopment efforts. And in places where people once cashed their paychecks at the convenience store and depended on payday loans, there are now full-service bank branches offering the same affordable financial services people in better neighborhoods take for granted. The Republicans like to talk about the "ownership society." There is no ownership without access to capital. For 30 years, the CRA has been making private capital available to qualified people who want to bootstrap themselves into home and business ownership, and a secure place in the middle class.

Wrong again, buckaroo. As explained just above, up to four-fifths of these loans were issued by financial institutions that operated with no federal regulatory oversight. In fact, in 2006, only one of the top 25 subprime lenders was a CRA institution. A few others were mortgage/finance company affiliates of CRA-covered lenders; but even these were separate businesses that didn't operate under CRA rules (including Countrywide, CitiMortgage, and Wells Fargo Home Mortgage). Likewise: the vast majority of the top 20 issuers of risky interest-only and option ARM loans were not CRA-affiliated lenders. The CRA example proves that government oversight not only works; it's essential to maintain safe and sane capital markets.

5 of 11 Racist Lies Republicans Tell to Avoid Blaming Wall Street for the Financial Crisis. If the government had just set the lenders free to do their thing, the market would have prevented this. It's just another example of how government oversight always leads to market failure.

4 of 11 Racist Lies Republicans Tell to Avoid Blaming Wall Street for the Financial Crisis. Most "junk" loans have been packaged into mortgage-based securities are Community Reinvestment Act loans. False. An analysis of Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) data in the country's 15 biggest metropolitan areas found 83.4% of the high-cost loans made in 2006 were originated by non-CRA lenders. The Federal Reserve notes that, across the country, non-CRA lenders were twice as likely as CRA lenders to issue subprime loans to vulnerable borrowers. Furthermore, the Fed also reports that responsible mortgages made by CRA lenders have about the same low rate of foreclosure as other traditional mortgages.

4 of 11 Racist Lies Republicans Tell to Avoid Blaming Wall Street for the Financial Crisis. Most "junk" loans have been packaged into mortgage-based securities are Community Reinvestment Act loans. False. An analysis of Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) data in the country's 15 biggest metropolitan areas found 83.4% of the high-cost loans made in 2006 were originated by non-CRA lenders. The Federal Reserve notes that, across the country, non-CRA lenders were twice as likely as CRA lenders to issue subprime loans to vulnerable borrowers. Furthermore, the Fed also reports that responsible mortgages made by CRA lenders have about the same low rate of foreclosure as other traditional mortgages.

It does periodically examine FDIC-backed banks, and issues them a CRA compliance rating. A highly-rated bank must meet the financing needs of as many community members as possible, and must not discriminate against racial and ethnic groups or certain neighborhoods. However, a bank will not receive a high rating unless it is also maintains "safe and sound banking practices." In other words, the CRA requires banks to lend to working-class families and people of color -- but only when those people have been deemed as creditworthy as anyone else.