Absolute proof' Obama was Indonesian citizen ( Archived) (144)

"he points to a list of misguided Republican actions that have led the country to economic disaster: the runaway growth of public debt resulting "not from big spending by the Democrats, but instead the Republican Party's embrace ... of the insidious doctrine that deficits don't matter if they result from tax cuts,"

I wonder...does he bother to point to the fact that it was the democrats who repeatedly voted down Bush and McCain when they warned (OVER AND OVER AGAIN) of the impending financial disaster if we did not do something to provide oversight to Freddie and Fannie?

And did he mention that Bush was saddled with a democratic congress and that it's congress who spends the money?

The Myth of Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Barney Frank, the Housing Bubble and the Recession
Jeff Dunetz at Big Government must have passed the right-wing media journalism test. He follows in the same hollowed ethical standards as Andrew Breitbart himself, James O’Keefe and Kevin Pezzi. Dunetz swears this is the truth, the whole truth and nothing but - Blame Barney Frank for the Recession, Not George Bush
Frank aggressively fought reform efforts by the Bush administration. He told The New York Times on Sept. 11, 2003, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac’s problems were “exaggerated.” Exaggerated? Thanks to Fannie and Freddie the housing market collapsed and we fell into this “great recession.”
That paragraph is 99% meaningless nonsense. Republicans controlled the House in 2003 and Tom The hammer Delay of K-Street infamy was House Majority Leader. The House, unlike the Senate is ruled by simple majority. Delay controlled the agenda and Bush 43 was in the White House. Frank could have set himself on fire and still had absolutely zero effect on any Republican attempts to legislate new regulations or create regulatory reform. Fannie and Freddie did not cause the housing bubble or the Great Recession. The numbers don’t add up. In addition Fannie and Freddie did not have that kind of power. Most of their loans were not subprime.
Start with the most basic fact of all: virtually none of the $1.5 trillion of cratering subprime mortgages were backed by Fannie or Freddie. That’s right — most subprime mortgages did not meet Fannie or Freddie’s strict lending standards. All those no money down, no interest for a year, low teaser rate loans? All the loans made without checking a borrower’s income or employment history? All made in the private sector, without any support from Fannie and Freddie.
Look at the numbers. While the credit bubble was peaking from 2003 to 2006, the amount of loans originated by Fannie and Freddie dropped from $2.7 trillion to $1 trillion. Meanwhile, in the private sector, the amount of subprime loans originated jumped to $600 billion from $335 billion and Alt-A loans hit $400 billion from $85 billion in 2003. Fannie and Freddie, which wouldn’t accept crazy floating rate loans, which required income verification and minimum down payments, were left out of the insanity.
Fannie and Freddie were not completely innocent they basically started having special sales Fannie’s “Expanded Approval” and Freddie’s “A Minus”- all under Bush’s watch and as Republicans controlled the House 1997 to 2005 ( the place where Frank has super duper legislative powers).

Fannie and Freddie were not, by themselves, wholly responsible for the crisis. But as government sponsored entities (GSE's), the value of the mortgages they re-sold on the secondary market was implicitly guaranteed by the government. This caused them to hold less capital to support their mortgages in case of loss. As a result, Fannie and Freddie took on risk to be profitable but knew they wouldn't suffer the consequences if things turned south.

The government set them up this way to allow them to buy qualified mortgages, insure them and resell them to investors. This freed up funds for banks to make new mortgages. They were traditionally involved in at least half of all new mortgages made each year. By December 2007, when banks began to constrict their lending, Fannie and Freddie were really the only lender still operating, responsible for 90% of all mortgages.

Barney Frank flat out LIED to congress with his assertions that all was well with Freddie and Fannie - as it was later proven - they were cooking the books in order to get their big bonusus, which they did. How curious that instead of getting fired, he now works for Obama

Republicans controlled the House 1997 to 2005

By Dec. 2007 it was all but over with.
The majority of loans you mentioned by then were homeowners using their homes as ATM machines.

It all started with Jimmy Carter and the Community Reinvestment act which strong armed banks into making completely irresponsible loans because he thought everyone should have the right to own a home regardless of their ability to afford one.

Later down the road, Democrats in Congress blocked attempts to reform Freddie and Fannie. The Bush Administration went to Congress on three separate occasions asking that regulation of Freddie and Fannie be tightened.

Prominent Democrats ran Fannie Mae, the same government-sponsored enterprise that donated campaign cash to top Democrats. ... According to an article by Kathleen Day in the Oct. 8, 2003, Washington Post, Barney Frank opposed giving the Bush administration the right to approve or disapprove business activities that "could pose risk to the taxpayers." He told the Post he worried the Treasury Department "would sacrifice activities that are good for consumers in the name of lowering the companies' market risks."

Just a month before, Frank had aggressively thwarted reform efforts by the Bush administration. He told The New York Times on Sept. 11, 2003, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac's problems were "exaggerated," a gross miscalculation some five years later with costs estimated to be in the hundreds of billions.

"These two entities – Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac – are not facing any kind of financial crisis," Frank said to the Times. "The more people exaggerate these problems, the more pressure there is on these companies, the less we will see in terms of affordable housing." ...

i just love it when you say "fannie"

Apparently liberals aren't too keen on balancing budgets either,as witnessed by Obama's total failure, even though he had total control of the house and senate for two full years.

I also remember that the policy of issuing poorly-secured real estate loans underwritten directly or indirectly by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. It began with the Clinton Policy changes made in 1995 required investment in real estate previously thought too risky. The requirement were further stiffened in 1999. An attempt to roll back the the requirements to make risky loans was rejected by the Federal Reserve Board in 2004. ...

A man without a fannie fixiation?