Regarding the letter “Blame Democrats for mortgage mess” (3/17), I refer readers to the article “Freddie Mac paid for ‘stealth’ effort.” (10/20/08, A-6). The subtitle says it all: “Mortgage giant’s money arranged for a GOP consulting firm to kill a regulatory bill.”
Chuck Hagel, a Republican, failed to get Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (a fellow Republican) to call for a vote on “effective regulatory reform legislation.” Little did Sen. Hagel know DCI, a Republican consulting firm, was paid $2 million to kill any potential legislation.
All this happened in 2005. The blame stops here.
Katherine Berger
Overland Park
Roger Lambert
I don't know. Obama seems to have a patsy who will allow him to override the Department's expert opinion without objection. Treasury thought the bonuses should be protected and paid and got Dodd to write an amendment doing that. Then when Obama got on a roll attacking the bonuses, Treasury said they would recover them. A clear 180 degree switch. Talk about your rubber stamps! We have a financial crisis and the man in charge, Obama, has experience only in extracting money from government. He doesn’t even seem to have much of a concept as to the original source of the money.
Posted by: Engineer | March 21, 2009 at 05:04 PM
Any bets on how long before Obama throws Geitner under the bus? I think his days are numbered.
Posted by: Roger Lambert | March 21, 2009 at 11:09 AM
Quit trying to change history Katherine, just for you.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MGT_cSi7Rs
Posted by: Kee | March 21, 2009 at 09:48 AM
Perhaps if Kathy Berger would look beyond 2005 she would find the real reason behind what has poisoned our financial system. The problem started under Jimmy Carter and was made worse under the Clinton administration. Under Clinton, Secretary of HUD, Andrew Cuomo ordered Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae to increase to 50% the number of bad loans they were holding (HUD No. 00-317). This set up the inevitable collapse of the government backed home mortgages. Even the NY Times stated that the increase of bad mortgagees would require a huge bailout if the economy slowed. (http://www.nytimes.com/1999/09/30/business/fannie-mae-eases-credit-to-aid-mortgage-lending.html?sec=&spon=&pagewanted=1).
After re-reading Kathy’s comments it appears she may be correct in that the Republicans failed to clean up another mess caused by the unintended consequences of feel good Democrat policy. Perhaps The Republicans did not increase regulations in 2005, but since taking over both houses of Congress, the democrats have done nothing but exacerbate the problem. And now that they have both houses and the White House, there is sure to be a many more unintended consequences that will need to be cleaned up for generations to come.
Republicans are not the problem any more than Democrats. The problem is career politicians who put their job security, i.e. re-election, ahead of the good of the Country. As long as we have career politicians as opposed to Statesmen our Country will continue to decline.
KC Beach
http://www.nytimes.com/1999/09/30/business/fannie-mae-eases-credit-to-aid-mortgage-lending.html?sec=&spon=&pagewanted=1
Posted by: KC Beach | March 21, 2009 at 09:00 AM
Don't think for a minute it was all on the shoulders of Republicans. Plenty of Democrats, including Obama, Franks, Dowd (to a name a few) accepted millions in campaign funds from Freddie and Fannie as well. That's documented if one cares to check. Don't forget that it was Carter and Clinton that pushed legislation (CRA) to force banks to loan to untested borrowers and Franks going on record stating he didn't see a problem with these two enterprises in his opinion. Franks' remarks came after George W. Bush brought up the fact there were warning signs in these entities; and McCain a few years later co-sponsored a bill which died when it was sent to Dowd's committee. Both parties were asleep in bed with these guys.
Posted by: truthhurts | March 21, 2009 at 08:05 AM
Still, NINETY PERCENT of homeowners PAY THEIR MORTGAGES!
People that purchase homes they can not afford utilizing "creative financing" methods hold equally as much responsibility as those whom loan the the money.
Fannie and Freddie both had Democrat executives while running them into do the gutter on more than one occassion. This goes far beyond Republican and Democrat.
We pay our mortgage, on time as agreed, so should anyone else that SIGNED OF THEIR OWN FREE WILL. READ what you sign.
Posted by: NoMoreMrNiceGuy | March 21, 2009 at 03:56 AM