The Note: In Blame Game, McCain’s Defense is Offense

MCCAIN SHOULD OF STAYED OUT OF IT HE PROJECTED POLITICAL CAMPAIGNING INTO IT MCCAIN DID NO GOOD!

If it wasn’t for McCain the mess would of passed with the billions for ACORN. Where is Mr. Hope and Change? Can’t the false Messiah ever do anything but talk?

mccain the white knight fails
thanks for the political stunt you great leader!!!!
fire this guy, and fire the house republicans
let hte dems write their own bill that will protect the voters of america instead of trying to figure out a way to bring the house rethuglicans on board

McWar/Falin – the rotting smell of death.
Posted by: clifton | Sep 30, 2008 8:59:36 AM
TYPICAL OBAMA NATION TATIC WE HAVE ONLY LIES TO SPEW SO NAME CALL INSTEAD OF FACTS

Everyone knows McCain wanted credit for the bill to prove that he is a Maverick, a reformer, now that the bill has failed he wants to blame Obama and the Democratic party, it was Bush/McCain and the republicans who failed.

Typical McCain tactic. First he takes credit for the plan, then when it fails he blames Obama! What a shyster.

It’s a Republican President; it’s the Republican House members who didn’t vote in enough numbers to get this done.
Personally, I think this whole mess stinks but the “bailout” has morphed and is less so in the proposed plan. Unfortunately, it needs to happen because we are no longer in a bailout situation – it is a rescue matter now…

I just checked the poll summary on realclearpolitics.com Of eight major polls, only one had McCain ahead of Obama. The end is near, and McCant and Falin’ are going down.

REDDOG
You need to get your head out of your a$$ wake up and see THE REAL JOHN MCCAIN A LIAR AND A PANDER he will say and do anything to win this election even if it means lying to the american people john mccain country first my A$$ hes crumbling look at his campaign a joke look at his vp a joke now he has to resort to lies and attacks on obama he has nothing else the clock is ticking and each tick MCCAIN IS GOING DOWN!

When you are in great need, would you prefer a person who tries to help you but fails in his attempt, or one that does not bother to do anything at all?

It because of people like you: angie that this mess will worsen by voting PRESENT not getting the details of what and who caused these problems you say fox news is biased they show facts unlike speculations

“..Thank you I didnt think I could get my head that far up my A$$ but I guess I can..”
Congratulations Red0216! You are hereby confirmed as a qualified McCain/Palin voter!

Fact for you reddog: McCain has missed more votes (over 400) in the last year in the Senate than any other Senator.

[edit] Clinton Administration Changes of 1995
In early 1993 President Bill Clinton ordered new regulations for the CRA which would increase access to mortgage credit for inner city and distressed rural communities.[7] The new rules went into effect on January 31, 1995 and featured: requiring strictly numerical assessments to get a satisfactory CRA rating; using federal home-loan data broken down by neighborhood, income group, and race; encouraging community groups to complain when banks were not loaning enough to specified neighborhood, income group, and race; allowing community groups that marketed loans to targeted groups to collect a fee from the banks.[4][6]
The new rules, during a time when many banks were merging and needed to pass the CRA review process to do so, substantially increased the number and aggregate amount of loans to low- and moderate-income borrowers for home loans, some of which were “risky mortgages.”[citation needed] Banks set up CRA departments, a CRA consultant industry was created and new financial-services firms helped banks invest in packaged portfolios of CRA loans to ensure compliance.[citation needed] Established and new community groups began marketing such mortgages. The Senate Banking Committee estimated that as of 2000, as a result of CRA, such groups had received $9.5 billion in services and salaries. As of that time such groups also had received tens of billions of dollars in multi-year commitments from banks, including ACORN Housing $760 million; Boston-based Neighborhood Assistance Corporation of America $3 billion; a New Jersey Citizen Action-led coalition $13 billion; the Massachusetts Affordable Housing Alliance $220 million.[4] The number of CRA mortgage loans increased by 39 percent between 1993 and 1998, while other loans increased by only 17 percent.[8]

FOX NEWS is lying and twisting to save mccains a$$ they know mccain has made a complete mess of himself so they will lie and twist just like mccain to pull him out but you no what reddog PEOPLE HAVE WOKE UP FROM THE BUSH NIGHTMARE people are not buying the republican LIES SMEARS AND FEARS ANYMORE maybe in 2004 but this is 2008 and after the long painful years with bush THE PARTY IS OVER FOR THE REPUBLICANS! DEAL WITH IT!

Fact: McCain was censured for “poor judgment” regarding the affair with his great good friend, convicted felon Charles Keating.

KEATING FIVE does anyone remember keating five?

president Clinton 79 billon dollar surplus leaving office
President Bush trillon dollar debt leaving office

Heavens to Betsy, McCain is sounding more like Cheney every day. Soon, very soon, he wil be echoing sounds of the old Roto Rooter.

OK redddog. Let’s assume for a moment that Bill is responsible. The Bush administration had eight years to rectify if that is the case. Where have they been until now? I’ll tell you where: championing additional deregulation with McCain and Gramm leading the charge.

resorting to sarcasm there, huh reddog? LOL

OK redddog. Let’s assume for a moment that Bill is responsible. The Bush administration had eight years to rectify if that is the case. Where have they been until now? I’ll tell you where: championing additional deregulation with McCain and Gramm leading the charge.
Posted by: William J. LePetomaine | Sep 30, 2008 9:27:04 AM
GW Bush Administration Changes of 2005
In 2002 there was an inter-agency review of the effectiveness of the 1995 regulatory changes to the Community Reinvestment Act and new proposals were considered.[6]
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency put new regulations into effect September of 2005. [10] The regulations were opposed by a contingent of Democrats[11]
The regulations included less restrictive new definitions of “small” and “intermediate small” banks.[3] “Intermediate small banks” were defined as banks with assets of less than $1 billion, but allows banks to opt for examination as a large bank.[10] Currently banks with assets greater than $1.061 billion have their CRA performance evaluated according to lending, investment and service tests. The agencies use the Consumer Price Index to adjust the asset size thresholds for small and large institutions annually.[6]
HERE IS WHERE THEY WERE BEING BLOCKED BY WHO?

The question is, where did McCain stand on the issue? HE is the one running.

The Disabled American Veterans (DAV) gave McCain a 20% rating on veterans issues; they gave Obama 80%. The Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA) gave McCain a letter grade of D; they gave Obama a B.

McCain is running out of tricks to convince voters he can be trusted on the economy. What else can he do to “save the economy”?
http://www.political-buzz.com/

They will not allow me to post the video here it but a quick search and you can find it Barney frank opposing CRA in google and it comes up quickly

WHAT exactly does a “community organizer” do? Barack Obama’s rise has left many Americans asking themselves that question. Here’s a big part of the answer: Community organizers intimidate banks into making high-risk loans to customers with poor credit.
In the name of fairness to minorities, community organizers occupy private offices, chant inside bank lobbies, and confront executives at their homes – and thereby force financial institutions to direct hundreds of millions of dollars in mortgages to low-credit customers.
In other words, community organizers help to undermine the US economy by pushing the banking system into a sinkhole of bad loans. And Obama has spent years training and funding the organizers who do it.

William J. LePetomaine | Sep 30, 2008 9:48:12 why are you switching subjects?? Lets deal with one at a time

good luck with that, reddog.

I can assure you HP, that Mr. Marks has never met Barack Obama, nor would Mr.Obama give him the time of day!

“I have a long voting record in support of deregulation”
McCain, St.Petersburg Times, 6/5/03

Yes he did on things that need less he is right.Our goverment was not designed to regulate.He belives in proper regulation not more where you stiffle growth

Free market needs transparency.
………………………….
What Bush has done is to control everything.
…………………………….
That is what DNC and Obama are trying to follow with media’s help.
…………………………….
Don’t you just hear only one voice today from media?
…………………………….
Don’t you hear enough the greatness and the chosen one?
……………………………..
Stop dancing with star and start working for youself.
……………………………..
It is time for moderate right and moderate left to stand up, work together, and lead this country to bright future.
……………………………..
No dictator and no extremist.

THE seeds of today’s financial meltdown lie in the Commu nity Reinvestment Act – a law passed in 1977 and made riskier by unwise amendments and regulatory rulings in later decades.
CRA was meant to encourage banks to make loans to high-risk borrowers, often minorities living in unstable neighborhoods. That has provided an opening to radical groups like ACORN (the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now) to abuse the law by forcing banks to make hundreds of millions of dollars in “subprime” loans to often uncreditworthy poor and minority customers.
Any bank that wants to expand or merge with another has to show it has complied with CRA – and approval can be held up by complaints filed by groups like ACORN.
In fact, intimidation tactics, public charges of racism and threats to use CRA to block business expansion have enabled ACORN to extract hundreds of millions of dollars in loans and contributions from America’s financial institutions.
Banks already overexposed by these shaky loans were pushed still further in the wrong direction when government-sponsored Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac began buying up their bad loans and offering them for sale on world markets.

It is a Republican President, Republican Bill and for the most part Republican caused the problem. I find it amazing how Washington is so broken they do not even back up their leader. What a mess we are in. What a mess the next president will be walking into. Who knows what will be next. Experts said it will not be tell 2015 that we see our strength come back as a nation. Folks we are in for a long hard ride.

The passengers are cold and wet in life boats, the ship’s crew is in the water – pointing fingers of blame. It would be funny if it were not so serious. ……..
http://thefiresidepost.com/2008/09/30/the-titanic-usa-is-sinking-passengers-are-in-life-boats/

Fannie and Freddie acted in response to Clinton administration pressure to boost homeownership rates among minorities and the poor. However compassionate the motive, the result of this systematic disregard for normal credit standards has been financial disaster.
ONE key pioneer of ACORN’s subprime-loan shakedown racket was Madeline Talbott – an activist with extensive ties to Barack Obama. She was also in on the ground floor of the disastrous turn in Fannie Mae’s mortgage policies.
Long the director of Chicago ACORN, Talbott is a specialist in “direct action” – organizers’ term for their militant tactics of intimidation and disruption. Perhaps her most famous stunt was leading a group of ACORN protesters breaking into a meeting of the Chicago City Council to push for a “living wage” law, shouting in defiance as she was arrested for mob action and disorderly conduct. But her real legacy may be her drive to push banks into making risky mortgage loans.

Yeah, reddog, I know its been a slow deterioration, but I’m thinking it could actually seize up as banks just say they’re not going to make any lending transactions right now. If they’re charging other banks almost 7 percent on loans today, they just aren’t interested in making loans.
That said, someone told me they saw the 30-year fixed rates actually lower today than yesterday. I didn’t look myself. Obviously one of those “facts” isn’t consistent with the other.
I’m guessing we’ll see 30-year fixed rates shoot up into double digits today or tomorrow – but that’s just a guess.

Staying away from a crisis because things may not not work out is not Leadership. The writer of this article needs a course in Leadership.
How would all of us respond if the CEO of our company did not join meetings in a crisis??Or how about a baseball coach who stayed away when the team was going down…Should a coach phone in his advice.
McCAIN DID THE RIGHT THING. Thats what leaders do. They are there to support there team/party no matter what the outcome is. In this case the outcome was not favorable. So they try to work at it again.
If nothing, Mccain’s move got the focus back on Congress and they worked over the weekend. This is the CHANGE that we need. A new style where you do not hesistate to jump into the fray. What Obama did was politics as ususal. Infact it was Obama’s campaign/ Pelosi/ Dodd/Reid who kept repeating that Mccain was a hindrance- rather than focusing on their jobs.

hms – all McCain did was politicize the discussion by intertwining his presidential campaign. It was a pure case of him trying to score political points without concern for the nation and these economic issues.

I for one am not for the bailout until the TRUTH comes out that in 1999 Fannie/Freddie were deregulated to increase minority home ownership. Beginning in 2003 republicans made 17 requests with 2 bills to regulate Fannie/Freddie but democrats shot it down. Meanwhile the heads of the banking and financial committees Dodd and Barney along with ALL viable presidential nominees Kerry, Obama and Clinton took huge money and lobbied against the bill killing it.
Then Fannie/Freddie make a ton of bad loans in 2005-2007 and now democrats try blaming republicans when everything crashes. The crash is due to “social justice” which the democrats refused to regulate because it would “defeat their goal of increased poor and minority home ownership.”
Here’s a link and a quote from Barney (D) who obviously has 0 foresight and has no business being on the financial services committee. I know some of you will empty your heads pretend you didn’t see that THE HOUSING CRISIS IS PRIMARILY DEMOCRATS FAULT FOR REFUSING TO REGULATE FANNIE/FREDDIE IN RETURN FOR CAMPAIGN CONTRIBUTIONS and keep commenting on Bush but this post is for the independants and moderates anyways who matter.
query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E06E3D6123BF932A2575AC0A9659C8B63&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=all
2003 statements from the article -
”These two entities — Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac — are not facing any kind of financial crisis,” said Representative Barney Frank of Massachusetts, the ranking Democrat on the Financial Services Committee. ”The more people exaggerate these problems, the more pressure there is on these companies, the less we will see in terms of affordable housing.”
Representative Melvin L. Watt, Democrat of North Carolina, agreed.
”I don’t see much other than a shell game going on here, moving something from one agency to another and in the process weakening the bargaining power of poorer families and their ability to get affordable housing,” Mr. Watt said.

Barney Frank and co. did not want more regulations on Fannie and Freddie watched the tape yesterday, McCain did both are public record. Clinton did not half to deal with 9-11 or a war on terror that was overwhelmingly voted yes in congress by both parties. Where do you people think our money went.

Any respect I had for McCain is definitely gone. This man makes Karl Rove look like a Saint.
McCain is running the most despicable campaign in history.

reddog – if not worse. At least during the Carter days, kids could get loans for college.
The other thing is – and I don’t know this, but just guessing – is I think we’re more dependent on credit now than the 1970s. I kind of doubt there was as many employers in the 1970s who relied on credit to make payroll.

The Fannie/Freddie talking points just sound like more despicable GOP stuff. Credit wouldn’t be seizing up if the mortgages weren’t bundled – by traditional investment houses – and sold as mortgage backed securities.
And it wasn’t Fannie/Freddie who were flooding my home mailbox with offers to refinance my house with adjustable rates or to open a home equity line of credit.

indy: “McCain is a maverick.”
Yes he is, and as much a con man and gambler as were the original Mavericks, Brett and Bart.

“The Fannie/Freddie talking points just sound like more despicable GOP stuff. Credit wouldn’t be seizing up if the mortgages weren’t bundled – by traditional investment houses – and sold as mortgage backed securities. ”
I gave a starting link. Go look it up or are you afraid to discover the dirty role the prominent democrats had in it? FYI many of those bundled mortgages were sold to the companies by Fannie/Freddie.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/23/AR2008092301718.html
Some quotes:
“The federal regulator overseeing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac said yesterday that the firms would play a smaller role this year in supporting affordable housing across the country than they have in the past.
The companies missed government-mandated affordable-housing goals in 2007, and “the miss will be larger in 2008,” James B. Lockhart III, director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, told the Senate Banking Committee.
The government sets goals for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to finance mortgages for people with low and moderate incomes, and Lockhart said he planned for the companies to continue that effort.
HERE IS THE KICKER
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac purchased and guaranteed “many more low-documentation, low-verification and non-standard” mortgages in 2006 and 2007 “than they had in the past.” He said the companies increased their exposure to risks in 2006 and 2007 despite the regulator’s warnings.
Roughly 33 percent of the companies’ business involved buying or guaranteeing these risky mortgages, compared with 14 percent in 2005. Those bad bets on mortgages led to billions of dollars in losses at the firms. “The capacity to raise capital to absorb further losses without Treasury Department support vanished,” Lockhart said.
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac bundle individual mortgages into securities, guarantee them against default and sell them to investors. They also buy mortgages from banks and other lenders and hold them in their own portfolios. The transactions allow the lenders to make more loans.

People KNOW that Obama (and democrats) played a major part in this current crisis, and how the democrats wanted 20% of the BAILOUT?RESCUE money to go to organizations like ACORN….Obama THE COMMUNITY ORGANIZER!!!
GOT THAT FOLKS 20% of 700 BILLION IS HOW MUCH??? 20% of 700 TRILLION IS HOW MUCH?? Can you fathom these staggering amounts???

Again, we do not need Obama’s and McCain’s wind. The tax payers are bailing out the banks That means the banks are supported by the taxpayers. The banks pay the higher FDIC premium with money in the bailout, The taxpayers are paying for everything. If McCain agrees with the FDIC hike, then Obama and McCain are using the same deception.
The banks will receive more money in the bailout to pay for the higher FDIC premiums. The premium must increase to cover the extra FDIC coverage. If you buy more coverage from your insurance carrier, your premium increases according to the extra coverage. Now taxpayers are bailing out the banks and the insurance companies. It does not take an Einstein to figure the simple mathematics.
After a thorough investigation, there is no doubt in backing and voting for
Ralph Nader.
http://www.votenader.org/about/
NO…. NO…. NO WAY Obama. McCain is on the back burner. Obama failed our investigation. McCain did somewhat better.

Just a partial list Of Ralph Nader’s accomplishments:
American Antitrust Institute
Appleseed Foundation
Arizona Center for Law in the Public Interest
Aviation Consumer Action Project
Buyers Up
Capitol Hill News Service
Center for Auto Safety
Center for Insurance Research
Center for Justice and Democracy
Center for Science in the Public Interest
Center for Study of Responsive Law
Center for Women Policy Studies
Citizen Action Group
Citizen Advocacy Center
Citizen Utility Boards
Citizen Works
Clean Water Action Project
Congress Project
Congress Watch
Connecticut Citizen Action Group
Corporate Accountability Research Group
Critical Mass Energy Project
Democracy Rising
Disability Rights Center
Equal Justice Foundation
Essential Information
FANS (Fight to Advance the Nation’s Sports)
Foundation for Taxpayers and Consumer Rights
Freedom of Information Clearinghouse
Georgia Legal Watch
Global Trade Watch
Health Research Group
Litigation Group
Multinational Monitor
National Citizen’s Coalition for Nursing Home Reform
National Coalition for Universities in the Public Interest
National Insurance Consumer Organization
Ohio Public Interest Action Group
Organization for Competitive Markets
Pension Rights Center
Princeton Project 55
PROD – truck safety
Public Citizen
Retired Professionals Action Group
Shafeek Nader Trust for the Community Interest
Student Public Interest Research Groups nationwide
Tax Reform Research Group
Telecommunications Research and Action Center
The Visitor’s Center
Trial Lawyers for Public Justice
http://www.votenader.org/about/
What are No…No…No Way Obama’s accomplishments?
What are John McCain accomplishments?

Obama was not the first out of the box to recommend an increase in FDIC insurance.
Republicans raised the point Saturday night and Democrats, at the time, were adamantly opposed.

I can see that a lot of posters here haven’t educated themselves about the hearings held in 2004 and 2005 and 2006 where Republicans tried to reform Fannie and Freddie.
Democrats are on record, Congressional record, as opposing reform and saying there was nothing wrong.

Like Donald Trump said and he is a very smart man, WHY do we have to buy the failed mortgages? THOSE that have already failed are FAILURES, buying them out is not going to change that! I am SICK and TIRED of OBAMA not TAKING a position and only referring to this in his stump speeches, and again I heard he will ONLY vote PRESENT? WTF? WE will have a President that can not take a stance? Then McCain gets castigated for doing his job as a Senator! HOW DARE these PEOPLE! AND CHRIS DODD and NANCY PELOSI make me wanna hurl! SHE is an utter FOOL! HOW did they EXPECT MCCAIN to MAKE the REPUBLICANS vote like he wanted anymore than OBAMA could make the DEMOCRATS VOTE like him, except he is gonna vote PRESENT! I am sick of the division caused by the Democrats I thought they were the PARTY of UNITY? THIS is a DISGRACE, now I KNOW why BILL CLINTON keeps tooting McCain’s horn!

Donald John Trump had his financial troubles in the 1970’s when New York City was next to being broke. Without the help of a loan from his father, Donald Trump may have had a financial crisis of his own. There was a legal question about his father’s loan, but power has a way of silencing talk.

Some posters like to talk about a presidential candidate’s age, but age is really a misconception for some people.
On a Barbara Walters special, we saw a 103-year-old woman caring for her seriously-ill 80-year-old daughter, who later died. Barbara Walters even visited a centenarian club, where people over 100 years of age congregated so they could meet others in their age group.
President John Tyler had eight children with Letitia, and seven with Julia. Their youngest child, Pearl, was conceived when Tyler was 70 years old.
Ageless Advice on Making the Rest of Your Life the Best of Your Life by Art Linkletter and Mark Victor Hansen. They celebrated Art Linkletter’s 94th birthday by beginning their 50-city book-promotion media tour. I was the first of a dozen-some media interviews they had planned for this muggy 100-degree day. Art had just walked up 35 flights of stairs and he was in his usual humorous form. The synergy between these two dynamic coauthors creates an absolutely contagious and ageless energy that will make you look forward to your senior years. Whether you’re 24, 44, or 94, the myths you’ve been holding onto about growing old have gotten old. I loved the book myself and I’m sure you’ll want a copy for yourself and any senior in your life. Here’s what the coauthors had to say!
I am 70-years-old and I have a son 8-years-old, a daughter 5-years-old and a daughter 2 ½-years-old.
After a thorough investigation, there is no doubt in backing and voting for
Ralph Nader.
http://www.votenader.org/about/
No To Obama. McCain is on the back burner. Obama failed our investigation. McCain did somewhat better.

Enough the the Keeting 5 nonsense. Not onyl was it year ago, but the prosecutor in the case has already stated publicly McCain did nothing wrong and never should have been part of the investigation. Besides, that scandal is trumped by Obama’s relationships with Bill Ayers and Tony Rezko.
The Republicans in the house are idiots. Even as a conservative I say that. Not only did they screw McCain with their votes, but they set this up for a Democrat success. The Republicans lack good leadership.
This is not a game and these deniers in the Republican party who think this crisis is not as bad as advertised are make ing a huge mistake. Without some action to resolve the crisis or at least soften it, we will have a very serious economic meltdown and that will provide teh opening for Obama, Pelosi and Reid to introduce more socialism into our government than the Republicans could ever imagine.
Get the bill passed and then go after the members of both parties who created this problem. Start with Barney Frank and Chris Dodd.

This crisis can be laid squarely
at the feat of the Democrats,
Barack Obama included! Read this:
Frank’s fingerprints are all over the financial fiasco
By Jeff Jacoby
Globe Columnist / September 28, 2008
Email| Print| Single Page| Yahoo! Buzz| ShareThisText size – + ‘THE PRIVATE SECTOR got us into this mess. The government has to get us out of it.”
Discuss
COMMENTS (326)
That’s Barney Frank’s story, and he’s sticking to it. As the Massachusetts Democrat has explained it in recent days, the current financial crisis is the spawn of the free market run amok, with the political class guilty only of failing to rein the capitalists in. The Wall Street meltdown was caused by “bad decisions that were made by people in the private sector,” Frank said; the country is in dire straits today “thanks to a conservative philosophy that says the market knows best.” And that philosophy goes “back to Ronald Reagan, when at his inauguration he said, ‘Government is not the answer to our problems; government is the problem.’ ”
In fact, that isn’t what Reagan said. His actual words were: “In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem.” Were he president today, he would be saying much the same thing.
Because while the mortgage crisis convulsing Wall Street has its share of private-sector culprits — many of whom have been learning lately just how pitiless the private sector’s discipline can be — they weren’t the ones who “got us into this mess.” Barney Frank’s talking points notwithstanding, mortgage lenders didn’t wake up one fine day deciding to junk long-held standards of creditworthiness in order to make ill-advised loans to unqualified borrowers. It would be closer to the truth to say they woke up to find the government twisting their arms and demanding that they do so – or else.
The roots of this crisis go back to the Carter administration. That was when government officials, egged on by left-wing activists, began accusing mortgage lenders of racism and “redlining” because urban blacks were being denied mortgages at a higher rate than suburban whites.
The pressure to make more loans to minorities (read: to borrowers with weak credit histories) became relentless. Congress passed the Community Reinvestment Act, empowering regulators to punish banks that failed to “meet the credit needs” of “low-income, minority, and distressed neighborhoods.” Lenders responded by loosening their underwriting standards and making increasingly shoddy loans. The two government-chartered mortgage finance firms, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, encouraged this “subprime” lending by authorizing ever more “flexible” criteria by which high-risk borrowers could be qualified for home loans, and then buying up the questionable mortgages that ensued.
All this was justified as a means of increasing homeownership among minorities and the poor. Affirmative-action policies trumped sound business practices. A manual issued by the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston advised mortgage lenders to disregard financial common sense. “Lack of credit history should not be seen as a negative factor,” the Fed’s guidelines instructed. Lenders were directed to accept welfare payments and unemployment benefits as “valid income sources” to qualify for a mortgage. Failure to comply could mean a lawsuit.
As long as housing prices kept rising, the illusion that all this was good public policy could be sustained. But it didn’t take a financial whiz to recognize that a day of reckoning would come. “What does it mean when Boston banks start making many more loans to minorities?” I asked in this space in 1995. “Most likely, that they are knowingly approving risky loans in order to get the feds and the activists off their backs . . . When the coming wave of foreclosures rolls through the inner city, which of today’s self-congratulating bankers, politicians, and regulators plans to take the credit?”
Frank doesn’t. But his fingerprints are all over this fiasco. Time and time again, Frank insisted that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were in good shape. Five years ago, for example, when the Bush administration proposed much tighter regulation of the two companies, Frank was adamant that “these two entities, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, are not facing any kind of financial crisis.” When the White House warned of “systemic risk for our financial system” unless the mortgage giants were curbed, Frank complained that the administration was more concerned about financial safety than about housing.
Now that the bubble has burst and the “systemic risk” is apparent to all, Frank blithely declares: “The private sector got us into this mess.” Well, give the congressman points for gall. Wall Street and private lenders have plenty to answer for, but it was Washington and the political class that derailed this train. If Frank is looking for a culprit to blame, he can find one suspect in the nearest mirror.
Jeff Jacoby can be reached at jacoby@globe.com.
© Copyright 2008 Globe Newspaper Company.

Obama did exactly what he should have done, let the speaker and the whip handle the congress. She delievered exactly what was promised for the Dem side of the bill, it did not fail beacause of Dem response, it failed because the GOP did not hold up their end of the bargain.

Watch Biden and Palin Prep for the debate. http://www.watchdebate.com

The perception has been set. The world awaits a promised bailout. Are American taxpayers more knowledgeable than the White House, McCain and Obama?
Or are they suddenly just less susceptible to bad PR?
http://pacificgatepost.blogspot.com/2008/09/bailout-of-perception.html
It sure looks like it.

MCCain is a crook at best. Since McCain could not pull off a thing in Washington his supporters are mad. You know McCain is someone nobody listens to. Country first my ***. MCcain was looking to get more votes and would have passed a trillion dollar bailout to get those votes. MCain always rushes in and overplays his hand ending up looking like a fool. I like Obama he has a cool head. Not just jumping all over the place. The last thing I heard MCcain say was that the Economy was strong. McCain supporters want to blame Obama because your man keeps looking like a fool. Go figure.