Barney Frank Ought To Win The Fannie/Freddy Blame Game

I'm going to keep banging this drum until the true story is told. This is a government caused problem and the primary sponsors were Democrats and the main Democrats were Senators Chris Dodd, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and Rep. Barney Frank. They helped craft the legislation and culture the enabled Fannie Mae and Freddy Mac to tip the economy into crisis.

There should have been better regulation of Fannie & Freddy. President Bush tried to do it in 2003 and John McCain tried to do in 2006--only to be stonewalled by Democrats.

When you have an institution--like Fannie or Freddy--that has overt backing by the federal government, which takes away the risk of bad investments, you must--MUST--couple that with regulation that ensures these pseudo-governmental institutions do not make bad investments that put the whole economy at risk.

Democrats pushed Fannie & Freddy to buy risky mortgages and stonewalled initiatives to regulate Fannie & Freddy so they didn't meltdown.

This is what happens when Democrats' governmental philanthropic whims become public policy.

(h/t DrewM @ Ace of Spades)

UPDATE: David Boaz blogging at Cato @ Liberty hammers on some of the same things I've been writing about for the last few weeks:

A page one Washington Post headline reports, “Credit Crisis Has Given Obama a Distinct Edge.” Which must be really frustrating for McCain, because McCain did try to reform Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac back in 2006. Obama, meanwhile, as I reported at the American Spectator, received more donations from Fannie Mae in four years than any other senator (except Banking Committee chairman Chris Dodd) received in twenty years. That’s quite an accomplishment–more money from a primary creator of the financial meltdown in just four years than senior members of Congress like Nancy Pelosi, Barney Frank, Richard Shelby, Spencer, Bachus, John Kerry, and Roy Blunt got in entire 20 years that the Center for Responsive Politics tallied. And of course, Obama chose former Fannie Mae CEO James Johnson, who was found to have jiggered the books, to head his search for a vice president.

Shouldn’t somebody in the media ask Obama why he was Fannie Mae’s favorite senator?

Hey media elites, how about this: How about you do your jobs and pose this question to Barack Obama?


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